Notes: Dutton's Developments; IPG Changes
Among the mix of news in a Los Angeles Times piece on bookstore changes in Southern California:
- The landlord of Dutton's Brentwood is talking about redeveloping the site and says he wants to keep a spot for the store, owned by Doug Dutton. "It's the ultimate redevelopment site," Charles T. Munger, a lawyer and Berkshire Hathaway principal, said, adding, "We've always been straight with Doug and told him the property would be developed in due course. The more time goes by, the closer we are to due course."
- Vroman's of Pasadena will open a branch in another mixed-used development Munger is building.
- Book Soup's South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa will close at the end of March.
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One of the oldest bookstores in the country, Burke's Bookstore,
Memphis, Tenn., is moving into slightly smaller space but an area the Memphis Commercial Appeal called "one of the trendiest stretches of storefronts in town."
Co-owner Cheryl Mesler told the paper: "We're so excited about this. It
just happened, but we've been looking at that space since August."
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Independent Publishers Group has announced the following personnel changes:
- Brooke O'Donnell has been named publishing director of Trafalgar Square Publishing, the distributor of U.K. presses that IPG bought last year. Formerly trade sales manager of IPG, O'Donnell will work with Trafalgar Square publishers to help develop their U.S. lists and will coordinate sales with IPG staff.
- Jeff Palicki has joined IPG as trade sales manager. He was formerly national accounts manager at Sourcebooks and earlier worked for 10 years as an assistant manager and manager at several Barnes & Noble stores.
- Elisabeth Malzahn has been named publicity manager at IPG, where she manages publicity for several IPG publishers, consults with the rest and coordinates campaigns for Trafalgar Square titles. Malzahn has worked in IPG's publicity department since 2004 and earlier was academic product manager at Perseus Books Group.
- Chris Chaney has been promoted to operations associate from customer service representative. He will work with Trafalgar Square publishers, sending and following up on purchase orders and tracking weekly consignments from the U.K.
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Where's Barnes?
Livraria Nobel, the bookstore company in Brazil that has opened
franchised stores in Portugal and Spain and will open soon in Mexico
and Angola, is "starting negotiations" to open stores in the U.S.,
according to Brazzil magazine. Altogether Nobel has some 150 stores and aims to open 30 more stores in Brazil this year.
Robert
Vavra met James Michener in 1961, in Sevilla, Spain. They became
unlikely friends over dinner--a famous, popular author and a young
photographer working on his first book. Over the next 35 years they
collaborated on a book (Iberia) and remained steadfast friends.
Michener comes across as a generous man, nourishing and practical in
his encouragement of other writers and artists. Filled with
photographs, with captions from Michener and others, the book includes
Vavra's memories of their time in Spain and three long letters from
Michener. In one of them, he responds to some negative reviews: "And
the critics, who sit around bars with their feet higher than their
heads, will continue to assure their handful of listeners that they
could have written twice the book Michener did. They will have good
lives and will win many free drinks developing this subject, and I do
not begrudge them their sunny afternoons of triumph." He adds,
matter-of-factly, "the sad fact is that they never write the books. I
do." And we're all the richer for it.--Marilyn Dahl