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Hastings Entertainment to Close All Stores

All Hastings Entertainment brick-and-mortar stores are set to close after liquidators won court approval to buy the retailer’s assets, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The chain filed for bankruptcy in mid-June with the hopes of finding a buyer, but was forced to accept the liquidators’ bid in the end.  

More than 120 stores will begin going-out-of-business sales starting Saturday, selling off their stock of CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, books, software, periodicals, videotapes, and video games.

The joint liquidation venture between Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners was approved on Friday by a judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The two liquidators will pay Hastings an estimated $82.5 million, 75 percent of the cost of inventory valued at $110 million.

The company has already closed affiliate MovieStop, which sells new and used movies primarily on the East Coast.

Ingram Launches Ingram Academic Services

Ingram Content Group’s Ingram Publisher Services has launched Ingram Academic Services, a service customized to supply resources, tools, and services to university presses and academic publishers.

Ingram Academic Services—the first joint initiative following Ingram’s acquisition of Perseus’ client services business—will work with an advisory board comprised of academic publishers and university presses from around the world and offer customized services such as state-of-the-art warehousing, print-on-demand network, digital asset management services and metadata management systems, and far-reaching sales representation.

Ingram Academic Services includes among its clients Brookings Institution Press, Columbia University Press, Indiana University Press, New York University Press, Princeton University Press, and University of California Press.

IPG to Distribute Five New Publishers

Independent Publishers Group (IPG) has partnered with five new independent publishers for distribution.

IPG began distributing Bucket Fillers in June 2016. As of January 2017, Mosaic Press will be distributed by IPG, Pucci Publishing will be distributed by IPG subsidiary Art Stock Books, and Amberley Press will be distributed through IPG’s Trafalgar Square Publishing.

A fifth publisher, Little Island Press, will be distributed by IPG Academic and Professional Publishing starting October 1.

Hachette Book Group Reorganizes Sales Staff

Hachette Book Group announced it has restructured its sales staff following its acquisition of Perseus’ publishing division.

In the independent bookstore sales department, Elizabeth Guess has been promoted to East Coast sales representative for field and independent bookstore sales, while Lily Goldman has been promoted to telephone sales representative and account marketing manager.

National account manager Marty Gosser will be in charge of selling Perseus titles to Barnes & Noble and B&N College, and national account manager Laura Shepherd will sell Perseus titles to Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Brodart. Adam Schnitzer, the executive director of online and digital sales and publisher liaison for all Perseus imprints, will oversee sales of all physical and digital Perseus titles to Amazon.

Among other changes, the company plans to hire an international sales director. In addition, the position of executive director of field sales will be eliminated, resulting in the departure of Mike Heuer effective August 1.

800-CEO-READ Appoints New CEO

Milwaukee-based bulk book selling company 800-CEO-READ announced last week that it would be led by a new chief executive officer, Rebecca Schwartz, the daughter of late co-founder David Schwartz.

800-CEO-READ, which was born out of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, was founded by Schwartz and Jack Covert in 1984. It remains the single Schwartz property following the closing of Schwartz Bookshop’s bricks-and-mortar stores in 2009.

Carol Grossmeyer, wife of the late Dave Schwartz, will retire from the CEO position in September 2016 and take over Rebecca Schwartz’s current position as chair of the company’s board of directors.

Midwest Booksellers Choice Awards Winners Announced

The Midwest Independent Booksellers Association has announced the winners for the 2016 Midwest Booksellers Choice Awards, which honor titles selected by booksellers from across the association’s nine-state region.

The winning titles, each of which highlight the Midwest or were written by Midwestern authors, are as follows: in the Adult Fiction category, Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (Pamela Dorman Books); in Adult Nonfiction, Locally Laid by Lucie Amundsen (Avery); in Poetry, The Falling Down Dance by Chris Martin (Coffee House Press); in the Young Adult & Middle Grade category, Isabelle Day Refuses to Die of a Broken Heart by Jane St. Anthony (University of Minnesota Press); and in the Children’s Picture Book category, North Woods Girl by Aimee Bissonette, illustrated by Claudie McGehee (Minnesota Historical Society Press).

The winners will be honored at the Heartland Fall Forum awards dinner on October 7 in Minneapolis.