BTW News Briefs

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

The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, in conjunction with the other regional booksellers associations, has launched the beta version of the Indie Bookseller Maker Marketplace. This new online portal allows independent booksellers to sell their own crafted items to other indie booksellers around the country; interested booksellers should contact NCIBA’s Ann Seaton via e-mail.

In additional NCIBA news, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association have been considering merging since the spring and are asking for feedback from member stores and publishing partners.

Amazon workers at a Shakopee, Minnesota, fulfillment center are planning a strike on the company’s upcoming Prime Day, according to Bloomberg.

Penguin Random House Publisher Services has announced it will sell and distribute all frontlist titles for America’s Test Kitchen Kids worldwide, starting with the spring 2020 list. PRHPS has distributed the company’s adult titles since 2016.

ZE Records co-founder Michael Zilkha has launched the new small press ZE Books. The publisher will put out two to four titles a year that are “literary mix-tapes from visionary writers, artists, and musicians.” As part of a partnership with Unnamed Press, ZE Books operates out of Unnamed’s Los Angeles office; Sarah Bumstead, formerly of Vroman’s Bookstore, will handle publicity for the company.

At Libro.fm, Hachette Audio has selected a list of audiobook titles to commemorate its 25 years in existence, with one audiobook per year of books published between 1994 to 2019. All 25 audiobooks will be on sale for $10 during the month of July.

Sally Marvin will join Gallery Publishing Group on July 22 as vice president and director of publicity. She previously worked at Random House as the director of events and event partnerships.

Randall Lotowycz has joined Algonquin as director of marketing and sales, and Lauren Moseley has been promoted to associate director of marketing. Lotowycz was most recently sales director of Workman.

Jessica Williams has been promoted to executive editor at William Morrow Group.

At Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Molly Ellis has been promoted to executive director of publicity, and Mariel Dawson has been promoted to executive director of advertising and promotion. 

Organizers of the $50,000 George Washington Prize, which recognizes the “best written works on the nation’s founding era,” have announced the prize’s finalists. Sponsors for the award are Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. 

Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr. has won the 2019 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. The military historian and professor, whose books include The Great War: An Imperial History (Routledge), The Great War in the Air (Smithsonian Institution Press), and German Airpower in World War I (University of Nebraska Press), among others, will receive $100,000 in prize money.

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