BTW News Briefs

Penguin Random House to Consolidate Warehouse Facilities

Penguin Random House announced on Thursday that its four physical book distribution and fulfillment facilities would be consolidated into two locations, with the process beginning next February and ending by June 2015.

The company will close its Pittston, Pennsylvania, and Kirkwood, New York, warehouse facilities by June 2015. All fulfillment operations for Penguin, Random House, DK, and client publishers will be brought to the Westminster, Maryland, and Crawfordsville, Indiana, locations.

In addition, several of Penguin’s support and distribution functions in Cranbury and Old Tappan, New Jersey, will be relocated, as well as Penguin’s Inside Sales department.

Fulfillment practices will remain as-is for the next year, said Penguin Random House, with combined shipping processes anticipated to begin in February  2015 and to be completely unified by mid-2015. 

BookExpo America to Host China in 2015

BookExpo America will welcome China to its Global Market Forum in 2015. The Chinese delegation is expected to include 500 professionals from 100 publishing companies and more than 50 authors, who will attend the hundreds of professional and cultural events held throughout BEA.

A formal signing ceremony will take place in Beijing on February 12, 2014, and will include the announcement of further details about China’s role at BEA. Steve Rosato, BEA’s show manager, will attend the ceremony, along with Chinese dignitaries Wu Shulin, deputy president of General Administration of Press and Publication of China, and Daniel Kritenbrink, deputy chief of mission of the American Embassy in Beijing.

“This is the first time that we have ever announced a Global Market Forum partner so far in advance, which only underscores how important this is to us and how far-reaching we think this program will be,” said Rosato. “We are working closely with the critical and important literary and press institutions in China and we are confident that China will deliver one of the most extensive and ambitious foreign literary and cultural programs ever mounted at BEA.”

BEA 2015 will be held Thursday, May 28, through Saturday, May 30, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City. The forum will include a full-day conference exploring the Chinese book market and will look at the relationship between book industry professionals in both the United States and China.

Simon & Schuster Launches All-Publisher Business Book Site 250 Words

Simon & Schuster announced on Monday the launch of 250 Words, a “publisher-agnostic” site that encompasses the genre of business books. Site content includes original author essays, reviews, and commentary about business books; interviews with  business professionals and entrepreneurs; book recommendations from business leaders; essays from writers in the fiction and nonfiction world; videos of authors discussing business books and topics; guest essays; a virtual bookshelf of the titles listed on the site; and daily links to topics of interest.

250 Words will feature a daily, original essay of no more than 250 words relating useful anecdotes and ideas from business books, available on the site and via an e-mail subscription. Select articles from 250 Words will also be featured on Fortune.com.

Simon & Schuster Publishing Group and Simon & Schuster Digital will operate the site for the business book community. The site will be edited by Sam McNerney, an independent writer.