BTW News Briefs

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

A video recently posted on the Axios website titled “Indie Bookstores Flourish in an Amazon World” reports that over the past 10 years, the number of indie bookstores has grown by nearly 50 percent across the U.S. The video interviewed Politics and Prose co-owner Bradley Graham, who told Axios, “You have to attribute this renewed interest in bookstores to a sense of community, a sense of neighborhood-ness.”

Chooseco LLC, which publishes the Choose Your Own Adventure children’s book series, filed a lawsuit earlier this month against Netflix for infringing on its CYOA trademark with the online platform’s hit movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

Europa Editions has launched new nonfiction imprint Europa Compass, which will focus on publishing books about travel, contemporary culture, popular science, history, philosophy, and politics.

Sourcebooks is launching three new children’s imprints under the Sourcebooks Kids umbrella: Sourcebook Wonderland, Sourcebooks Young Readers, and Sourcebooks eXplore.

Atria Books Publishing Group announced the launch of Signal Press, which will publish books that contribute to the conversation around feminism, politics, and issues of social justice as well as biographies that illuminate historical and contemporary figures.

Chicago Review Press Inc., owner of Chicago Review Press and Independent Publishers Group, has bought Council Oak Books, a longtime IPG client publisher, which will become an imprint of the press.

Penguin Random House Publisher Services will distribute Crooked Lane Books titles starting September 1. Crooked Lane specializes in crime fiction and publishes more than 70 original titles a year.

Macmillan has announced that Maya Mavjee will be joining the company on March 1 as president of publishing strategy. The former Crown Publishing Group president and publisher will report to Macmillan CEO John Sargent.

Effective February 4, Timothy Paulson will join HarperCollins Christian Publishing as vice president and publisher of Nelson Books, a Thomas Nelson imprint; Paulson replaces Brian Hampton.

At Harper Children’s Books, Olivia Russo has been promoted to director of publicity, and Haley George has been promoted to associate publicist; Kristopher Kam is joining the company as publicist.

At Random House, Michelle Jasmine has been named associate director of publicity, and Mary Moates has been named publicist. At Random House Children’s, Elena Meuse and Sydney Tillman have each been promoted to associate publicist.

At William Morrow, Camille Collins has been promoted to publicity manager, and Eliza Rosenberry has been promoted to senior publicity manager.

This year’s PEN America Literary Gala will honor journalist and Fear author Bob Woodward, who will receive the Literary Service Award, and Scholastic CEO and president Richard Robinson, who will be this year’s Publisher Honoree. The free speech advocacy organization’s annual gala event will be hosted by Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver at the American Museum of Natural History on May 21.

The Jewish Book Council announced the winners of the 2018 National Jewish Book Awards.

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers announced the winners of the 2019 Pacific Northwest Book Awards.

The finalists for the 15th annual Story Prize, which honor an outstanding collection of short fiction, were announced: A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley (Graywolf Press); Your Duck Is My Duck by Deborah Eisenberg (Ecco); and Florida by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books). A Lucky Man was the May 2018 number-one Indie Next List pick.

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