BTW News Briefs

Penguin Random House Announces Office Consolidation Plans

Penguin Random House has announced it will relocate its employees currently at 345 and 375 Hudson Street to the company’s offices at 1745 Broadway by early 2019, a move that will consolidate all employees in one Manhattan building.

In an August 8 memo to staff, Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle wrote that the landlord at 1745 Broadway had presented the opportunity to accommodate all 2,400 PRH employees at a greatly reduced long-term rent, which will result in a savings of approximately $20 million annually.  

Penguin merged with Random House in 2013. The company is currently finalizing negotiations for the move, which will make Penguin Random House the sole tenant of the property.

Baker & Taylor Launches Global Publishers Services 

Baker & Taylor has announced the launch of Global Publishers Services (GPS), a new business unit that will provide client publishers with international sales and marketing services.

The launch of the GPS model is the first big development since Baker & Taylor’s acquisition by Follett Corp. in April. B&T said that GPS will offer tailored services enabling publishers to reach multiple sales channels, including traditional retail, online retailers, schools, libraries and consumers, through e-commerce platforms. GPS will also collaborate with Baker & Taylor’s international wholesale team.

The GPS team will be led by Vice President and General Manager Chitra Bopardikar, who helped build international sales and client services in her previous positions at Publishers Group West and Perseus.

T.C. Boyle Wins Inaugural Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award

T.C. Boyle has won the inaugural Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award for his novel The Harder They Come, published in 2015 by Ecco/HarperCollins.  

The award, presented by the Mark Twain House & Museum, comes with a $25,000 prize donated by author David Baldacci, a Mark Twain House trustee. Boyle, the author of 24 books of fiction and the winner of dozens of other literary prizes, will be honored at a ceremony on September 26 at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center.

Twain scholars David Bradley, Jocelyn Chadwick, and Shelley Fisher Fishkin voted unanimously to award the prize to Boyle. Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson and The First Bad Man by Miranda July were the other finalists for the award. Each will receive $1,000 prize.

Bonnier Publishing Launches Bonnier Publishing USA

Bonnier Publishing, the English language book-publishing division of Sweden’s Bonnier Group, is launching a new U.S. division, Bonnier Publishing USA, The Bookseller has reported.

The new division brings together the company’s U.S. imprints, Little Bee Books and Weldon Owen. Little Bee will relocate from 853 Broadway to a larger space at 251 Park Avenue South in New York City, which will serve as the division’s headquarters, while Weldon Owen will remain at its offices in San Francisco.

Shimul Tolia, president of Little Bee Books, has been promoted to CEO of Bonnier Publishing USA. Roger Shaw, president and publisher of Weldon Owen U.S., will continue to lead Bonnier Publishing USA’s West Coast operations and will report to Tolia.

Kuyper Resigns as BISG Executive Director

Mark Kuyper has resigned as executive director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). The organization, which has already begun a search for a new executive director, said that Kuyper is currently exploring “other areas of interest.”

Kuyper joined BISG as executive director on June 15, 2015, after serving as president and CEO of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association as well as 10 years on the BISG Board. Previously, Kuyper worked as an executive at the Christian Retail Association and as a sales director for Nav Press.