BTW News Briefs

Here’s what’s happening this week in the book industry:

Frankfurt Book Fair has launched Bookfest, a festival-within-a-festival that will follow Germany’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Frankfurter Buchmesse’s new “international festival for literature, stories, and ideas” will be held in the Frankfurt Pavilion and other locations across the city.

On Sunday, August 19, former President Barack Obama posted on Facebook a list of the books he read this summer, which included Educated by Tara Westover (Random House), a number-one Indie Next List pick for March 2018 and a Winter/Spring 2018 Indies Introduce title.

Amazon has announced the location of the new Amazon Books in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood; plans for the new store were initially announced last winter. There are now 16 Amazon Books locations nationwide and three in development.

Seven Stories Press has launched two new August promotions incentivized for indie booksellers to create displays of Seven Stories books included in the promotions on two themes: “Women in Translation” and “Human Rights, Against War.” The winning indie bookstores will receive five extra points and a $250 prize.

San Francisco publisher Chronicle Books and Trustbridge Global Media have announced that they plan to launch Chronicle Bridge, a new imprint publishing and distributing Chinese-language editions of selected Chronicle children’s books in China. The imprint, to launch at the Beijing International Book Fair, will debut with five titles in August and publish 20 in total its first year.

Amphorae Publishing Group has acquired Goldminds Publishing, which publishes children’s and young adult genres as well as regional fiction, nonfiction, historical fiction, and science fiction/fantasy.

Nebraska Book Company (NBC) and Follett Higher Education Group (FHEG) have entered a sourcing partnership in which NBC will expand its wholesale services business by assuming FHEG’s independently managed store accounts, and FHEG will shift its focus from physical wholesale services to the company’s online marketplace platforms for buying, selling, and renting books.

Starting in January 2019, Hopkins Fulfillment Services will provide distribution services for Wesleyan University Press.

Ingram Publisher Services will now distribute Grim Oak Press, publisher of the award-winning Unfettered anthology series, among other science fiction and fantasy titles. Ingram has also added three new technical and professional publisher clients to its sales and distribution network: Hanser Publications, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the International Society for Technology in Education.

Publishers Group West will globally distribute the independent nonprofit publisher Heyday starting in January 2019. Heyday is currently distributed regionally by Book Travelers West.

Tyndale House Publishers has announced the retirement of Executive Vice President and CFO Paul Mathews. As a result, Scott Mathews has been named the new CFO of Tyndale. Paul Mathews had worked with the company for 41 years.

Phoenix International Publications was just named a worldwide leading Licensee 2018 by License Global magazine. Phoenix was one of eight companies awarded the distinction within the worldwide publishing category, and one of four specializing in children’s content. 

As part of the Half Moon Bay Review’s Readers’ Choice Awards, readers of the Half Moon Bay, California, publication have nominated Ink Spell Books’ Find Waldo Local event for “Best Local Event of the Year.” Readers of the magazine can vote for their favorites through August 31.

NAIBA has announced that bookseller Alissa duBois at The Otto Bookshop in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is the 2018 recipient of the association’s Joe Drabyak Handseller of the Year Award, named in honor of the late NAIBA president.

Winners of the 2018 Hugo Awards announced Sunday included The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) for Best Novel. The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer went to Rebecca Roanhorse, author of “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™,” which also won the award for Best Short Story.

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