Notes: AMS President Gone; New Owner at 23rd Avenue Books
Bruce C. Myers, president and CEO of Advanced Marketing Services since
late 2004, has resigned, effectively immediately, according to the
company. Loren C. Paulsen, executive v-p and a company founder, is
assuming the offices on a temporary basis. AMS, which for several years
has been dealing with a serious accounting scandal, said it
"anticipates being able to announce shortly the appointment of a new
chief executive officer, who is well-known and highly regarded in the
company's industry."
Myers was named chief financial officer for AMS in early 2004, when previous CFO Ed Leonard and longtime CEO and president Michael Nicita left the company.
Among its main businesses, AMS supplies books to warehouse clubs and owns PGW.
---
Congratulations to Stephanie Griffin, who has bought Twenty-Third Avenue Books in Portland, Ore., from Bob Maull, who is moving to Cape Cod with his wife.
"I was a customer and always loved this store," Griffin told Shelf Awareness. "I heard a rumor that they were going to close, so I gathered up my courage and with the support of a lot of friends and my banker, I said, I'm going to do this." She acted quickly: on March 5, she heard that if there were no buyer, the store would close at the end of March. She took over officially on April 15.
An accountant by profession, Griffin said she is learning fast about store operations and has been helped by the "terrific" staff. Maull stayed for several weeks "in the background, helping me out, answering my questions."
Griffin has "no plans to change things. This store is a fixture in the neighborhood. I plan on continuing the readings and hopefully live up to the legacy Bob left with his wonderful selection of books."
---
In a letter to customers and friends, Corey and Cheryl Mesler, owners of Burke's Book Store, Memphis, Tenn., since 2000, have said that the 131-year-old store is in "financial trouble," the Memphis Daily reported. "In short, we are not generating enough revenue to pay our bills. . . . We're looking for a way to save our store."
Besides being one of the oldest bookstores in the country, Burke's is well known as a regular book event stop for John Grisham, who was treated well there long before he became famous.
The Meslers are asking for donations and for sales. "Just come to the shop," Cheryl Mesler told the paper. "That's the thing, getting people into the store."
---
Cool idea of the day: the 11th Festival of Mystery, held last week and sponsored by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pa., and NPR station WDUQ, drew some 350 mystery lovers to an occasion at which more than 50 mystery writers casually mixed with customers. "It is a fun event with no awards, banquet or panels, just a relaxed and fun time," co-owner Mary Alice Gorman wrote. For this year's festival, the store rented the Greek Orthodox Church Hall, where "alongside the twinkle lights, flowers and net were sashes of crime scene tape and balloons in the store colors of red, black and white."
The store held raffles and offered some food; the entrance fee was $8. Mystery Lovers co-owner Richard Goldman interviewed some of the authors for readers and book clubs. Sales increased 25% over last year's festival.
---
In March and April, Bookworld added as new distribution clients: Manor House Publishing, Creatrix Books, Crown Christian Publications, Executive Excellence Publishing, Tycoon Records, Stern's Travel Guides and Phoenix Press.
The company also has hired Dawn Oftedahl, who had been a sales manager at Lewellyn, as a rep to the Western states. She will be based in California. With Oftedahl's appointment, Bookworld now uses its own sales force to sell to 85% of the market.
Bookworld chairman Ron "Ted" Smith said that March was the best month in the company's history.
---
Here's a prompt: on May 20, Laurie B. King, whose new crime thriller, The Art of Detection (Bantam, $24, 0553804537), appears at the end of the month, will do what she calls "writer's improv": in public, she will write a short story based on prompts submitted earlier by the public but given to her only minutes before she begins to write. The story will be "a fantasy-mystery set in south Santa Cruz County, with its main character someone connected to middle school or junior high school (student, staff, or family member of one or the other)."
There are seven very specific prompts to be filled, including 1) the first line of the story; 2) a fictional name for the school; 3) the name and description of a fictional video game; 4) a magical device from the imaginary video game; 5) a school research topic; 6) a favorite snack (no brand name); and 7) the madeup name of a hangout. Contributors need not suggest a prompt for each item.
Suggested prompts are due by 5 p.m. next Monday. Submissions via e-mail should go to improv@scparks.com and should contain the person's name, snail mail address and phone number. Prompts should be numbered.
King is writing the story as part of her Artist of the Year Profile Performance sponsored by the Santa Cruz County Department of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services. Contributors whose prompts are used will receive a signed copy of a King novel and be thanked in print when the collection containing the story is published.
---
Order in the party room!
Last week's launch party for Captured! Inside the World of Celebrity Trials (Santa Monica Press, $24.95, 1595800115), which consists of a selection of 25 years of sketches by courtroom artist Mona Shafer Edwards, drew a who's who of the Los Angeles legal community, including lawyers Gloria Allred, Tom Mesereau (Michael Jackson), Howard Weitzman (O.J. Simpson), Bill Hodgman (an O.J. Simpson prosecutor), Harland Braun (Robert Blake) and Tony Brooklier (Heidi Fleiss) as well as Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, Judge Elden Fox and Judge Eleanor Hunter. Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss also showed up at the Koplin Del Rio Gallery in West Hollywood, too--in part to see how she was "captured" in the chapter about her in the book.
Myers was named chief financial officer for AMS in early 2004, when previous CFO Ed Leonard and longtime CEO and president Michael Nicita left the company.
Among its main businesses, AMS supplies books to warehouse clubs and owns PGW.
---
Congratulations to Stephanie Griffin, who has bought Twenty-Third Avenue Books in Portland, Ore., from Bob Maull, who is moving to Cape Cod with his wife.
"I was a customer and always loved this store," Griffin told Shelf Awareness. "I heard a rumor that they were going to close, so I gathered up my courage and with the support of a lot of friends and my banker, I said, I'm going to do this." She acted quickly: on March 5, she heard that if there were no buyer, the store would close at the end of March. She took over officially on April 15.
An accountant by profession, Griffin said she is learning fast about store operations and has been helped by the "terrific" staff. Maull stayed for several weeks "in the background, helping me out, answering my questions."
Griffin has "no plans to change things. This store is a fixture in the neighborhood. I plan on continuing the readings and hopefully live up to the legacy Bob left with his wonderful selection of books."
---
In a letter to customers and friends, Corey and Cheryl Mesler, owners of Burke's Book Store, Memphis, Tenn., since 2000, have said that the 131-year-old store is in "financial trouble," the Memphis Daily reported. "In short, we are not generating enough revenue to pay our bills. . . . We're looking for a way to save our store."
Besides being one of the oldest bookstores in the country, Burke's is well known as a regular book event stop for John Grisham, who was treated well there long before he became famous.
The Meslers are asking for donations and for sales. "Just come to the shop," Cheryl Mesler told the paper. "That's the thing, getting people into the store."
---
Cool idea of the day: the 11th Festival of Mystery, held last week and sponsored by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pa., and NPR station WDUQ, drew some 350 mystery lovers to an occasion at which more than 50 mystery writers casually mixed with customers. "It is a fun event with no awards, banquet or panels, just a relaxed and fun time," co-owner Mary Alice Gorman wrote. For this year's festival, the store rented the Greek Orthodox Church Hall, where "alongside the twinkle lights, flowers and net were sashes of crime scene tape and balloons in the store colors of red, black and white."
The store held raffles and offered some food; the entrance fee was $8. Mystery Lovers co-owner Richard Goldman interviewed some of the authors for readers and book clubs. Sales increased 25% over last year's festival.
---
In March and April, Bookworld added as new distribution clients: Manor House Publishing, Creatrix Books, Crown Christian Publications, Executive Excellence Publishing, Tycoon Records, Stern's Travel Guides and Phoenix Press.
The company also has hired Dawn Oftedahl, who had been a sales manager at Lewellyn, as a rep to the Western states. She will be based in California. With Oftedahl's appointment, Bookworld now uses its own sales force to sell to 85% of the market.
Bookworld chairman Ron "Ted" Smith said that March was the best month in the company's history.
---
Here's a prompt: on May 20, Laurie B. King, whose new crime thriller, The Art of Detection (Bantam, $24, 0553804537), appears at the end of the month, will do what she calls "writer's improv": in public, she will write a short story based on prompts submitted earlier by the public but given to her only minutes before she begins to write. The story will be "a fantasy-mystery set in south Santa Cruz County, with its main character someone connected to middle school or junior high school (student, staff, or family member of one or the other)."
There are seven very specific prompts to be filled, including 1) the first line of the story; 2) a fictional name for the school; 3) the name and description of a fictional video game; 4) a magical device from the imaginary video game; 5) a school research topic; 6) a favorite snack (no brand name); and 7) the madeup name of a hangout. Contributors need not suggest a prompt for each item.
Suggested prompts are due by 5 p.m. next Monday. Submissions via e-mail should go to improv@scparks.com and should contain the person's name, snail mail address and phone number. Prompts should be numbered.
King is writing the story as part of her Artist of the Year Profile Performance sponsored by the Santa Cruz County Department of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services. Contributors whose prompts are used will receive a signed copy of a King novel and be thanked in print when the collection containing the story is published.
---
Order in the party room!
Last week's launch party for Captured! Inside the World of Celebrity Trials (Santa Monica Press, $24.95, 1595800115), which consists of a selection of 25 years of sketches by courtroom artist Mona Shafer Edwards, drew a who's who of the Los Angeles legal community, including lawyers Gloria Allred, Tom Mesereau (Michael Jackson), Howard Weitzman (O.J. Simpson), Bill Hodgman (an O.J. Simpson prosecutor), Harland Braun (Robert Blake) and Tony Brooklier (Heidi Fleiss) as well as Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, Judge Elden Fox and Judge Eleanor Hunter. Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss also showed up at the Koplin Del Rio Gallery in West Hollywood, too--in part to see how she was "captured" in the chapter about her in the book.
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