Frankfurt Book Fair Plans to Go Back to Basics
November’s reorganization has resulted in the New York office being closed, an undisclosed number of layoffs, and a decision to continue the fair as a physical presence, allowing authors and fans to meet, providing meeting space for agents and authors, and more.
Morning Messages: 6 Minutes a Day to the Life of Your Dreams by Michelle Vosburg, Ph.D., launched in December.
Denver Indie Bookstore Launches BookBar Press
Publishing ten short plays, BookBar launched its book-publishing division. The plays were originally produced by the Denver Center for Performing Arts and presented at BookBar. Written by local area playwrights, each play deals with books and a current social topic.
Jay-Z Brings Roc 101 Imprint to Random House
Roc Nation has created an imprint at Random House called Roc Lit 101. The imprint will publish books that focus on the intersection of genre-defying literature and entertainment including sports, music, activism, art, and pop culture.
Grove Atlantic Raises Entry-Level Pay. Others who led the way include Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and the independent publisher Beacon Press. Grove lists entry-level pay now at $40,000 a year.
Losses in December include spy novelist John le Carre and mystery writer Parnell Hall.
John le Carré’s Literary Legacy, Visualized at Parnell Hall authored the Steve Winslow legal thrillers, the Puzzle Lady whodunits, and twenty novels featuring inept P.I. Stanley Hastings. Chasing Jack, his last release, is a police procedural as only Hall can twist it.
Both authors will be sorely and sadly missed.
And Covid goes on…
Continuing cancellations and closings listed here as of December 2020.
Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore Sold to Two Entrepreneurs
The bookstore was founded in 1971 and is in four locations with a fifth planned to open.
Black Booksellers Denounce Tattered Cover Announcement
Black booksellers have led the resurgence of indie bookstores across the country. Tattered Cover has claimed to be the largest Black-owned bookstore and has angered Black booksellers who say only one of the two partners is Black and the majority of the investment group is White.
Holiday book buying showed unit sales of print books jumping 44.3% over the week ended November 29, 2020, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
The private equity firm Atlas Holdings has completed its purchase of LSC Communications, the country’s largest book printer, which filed for bankruptcy in April.
