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Fiona McCrae
The last few years have been particularly good ones for Graywolf Press, the Minneapolis independent now in its 35th year, headed up by Fiona McCrae. McCrae, who was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and grew up in Hertfordshire, just north of London, began her publishing career at Faber & Faber in London, where she started as an editorial assistant and ended up a senior editor.
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Against All Odds, Small Presses Prosper
Despite brutal economic conditions, several independent publishers managed to find ways to grow both their sales and profits in 2008. How did they do it? They are not afraid to be frugal—forgoing advances in favor of offering higher royalties, for example; and they practice innovation—“mining data” for new audio prospects, in the case of Tantor, or teaching authors how t...
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Not Your Father's Books on Tape
Although a survey conducted at last year's ALA found librarians giving Random House's Books on Tape audiobooks division good grades for quality and reliability, it also revealed that the company, founded in 1974 and acquired by RH in 2001, needed to update its image. So beginning this month, Books on Tape is rolling out a new logo that emphasizes the company's initials and is redesigning its pa...
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B&N Warehouse Staffers Fired After Immigration Audit
Late last week 50 Hispanic staffers at a Barnes & Noble distribution center in Revo, Nev., were fired after a federal immigration audit. According to the Reno Gazette Journal, the staffers were told their firings came as a result of problems with their immigration documents.
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Geoffrey Jennings
I'm 40, right in the middle of Gen X; I can look forward at all the people younger than me, how they read, how they use technology, and I can look back at older readers, and how they're using it,” declares Geoffrey Jennings, a bookseller at Rainy Day Books, the independent bookstore his mother, Vivien Jennings, owns in Fairway, Kans.
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Managing Inventory: Booksellers as Curators
Last month at Winter Institute when Steve Bercu, president of BookPeople in Austin, Tex., said at a panel on “Surviving Hard Times” that he had cut his store's inventory by 55%, there was a gasp—even though he'd made the cuts gradually over the past nine years. While Bercu's radical pruning may make some booksellers uncomfortable, inventory is one of a few controllable costs.
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Q & A with Lisa Yee
Author Lisa Yee, a “mostly cured workaholic,” talked to Children’s Bookshelf about Absolutely Maybe, her first novel for young adults.
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New Imprints Stake a Claim
Lately, the word of the day in publishing has been “reduction,” be it in head counts or acquisitions. And while several children's imprints have been lost in recent months due to restructuring, retirements, etc., 2009 will see the arrival of a new children's publisher, Egmont USA (see “New Kid on the Block,” June 16, 2008), as well as a number of new imprints.
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Scholastic Media Has Big Plans for Clifford
“It only takes a little…to BE BIG!” The motto for Scholastic Media’s new Clifford The Big Red Dog BE BIG! campaign delivers the message at the heart of this initiative: small actions based on Clifford’s Big Ideas—among them sharing, helping others, being responsible, playing fair and working together—can make the world a better place.
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HarperCollins Closes Bowen Press
On Tuesday, in response to rapidly declining sales and earnings, HarperCollins closed its Collins imprint and cut a rumored 60 positions. As part of the cutbacks, The Bowen Press, a children’s imprint that was set to launch this month, is closing, and publisher Brenda Bowen has left the company
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Q & A with K.L. Going
Children's Bookshelf spoke with K.L. Going about her new novel, King of the Screwups (Harcourt).
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Huzzahs for Humphrey
It’s not unusual for rodent characters to make it big in the world of children’s books. Currently, a humble hamster named Humphrey is riding his yellow hamster ball to popularity as star of a series of books by Betty G. Birney.
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Harper Closing Collins; Other Layoffs Planned
HarperCollins announced this morning that it is closing its Collins division and integrating its operations within different businesses in the General Books Group. As a result, Steve Ross, president and publisher of Collins, and Lisa Gallagher, senior v-p, and publisher of William Morrow, are leaving the company. In addition to closing Collins, CEO Brian Murray issued a memo today saying that despite efforts to avoid layoffs, a reduction in the workforce will be necessary.
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Armstrong, Harwood Among Those Leaving in Borders Consolidation
Borders has consolidated its corporate management team, a move that resulted in the elimination of the executive v-p of U.S. stores and CIO positions held by Ken Armstrong and Susan Harwood, respectively. Fourteen other positions at the v-p and director level were eliminated as well.
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Reader’s Digest Cuts 280 Positions
Reader's Digest has eliminated 8% of its workforce due to a decline in consumer spending and ad revenue.
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Schaffner Press: Publishing as Improvisation
Tim Schaffner's hobby, jazz drumming, put him on a roundabout path to independent publishing. “I got involved with Artt Frank. He played with Chet Baker and has been my teacher and mentor,” said Schaffner. “We put together a book for jazz drummers—Essentials for the Be Bop Drummer [by Artt Frank and Pete Swan, 2005].
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Scholastic Rolls Out Carman’s Multimedia Venture
Skeleton Creek -- conceived, written and produced by Patrick Carman, author of the Land of Elyon, Atherton and Elliot’s Park series -- is a new ghost mystery from Scholastic that plays out on the page and in online video footage.
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Amazon Launches Author Stores
Amazon has added a new way of finding books to its site, which the company is calling Author Stores, single pages that feature all books from a particular author, plus, in many cases, an author photo and some related content, such as a biography, message board and streaming video.
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Advancing the Cause
In today's climate, surviving is heroic in itself. But several figures and one bold initiative stand out as deserving of special praise for addressing current conditions with creative, dynamic and successful strategies. David Shanks Leads the Penguin Team When David Shanks took over the reins of Penguin Group USA from Phyllis Grann in 2001, his colleagues at competing companies included Jane ...
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Emotional Content and Bio-Manga
While working at a large magazine company in Japan, Eiji Han Shimizu had a vision to use Japanese comics, or manga, to change the world. The general concept was well received at his company, but his vision was not considered commercially viable. Despite this, Shimizu began culling a network of manga artists and creators, and formulating ideas for a new kind of informational/inspirational manga.
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