Simon & Schuster has joined Batch for Books, which streamlines invoice management and payment processes for booksellers and publishers. With S&S's participation, Batch for Books now includes all of the Big Five publishers, which Batch called "a major milestone." Less than two weeks ago, Hachette Book Group joined Batch for Books. Other U.S. publishers that partner with Batch are Arcadia Publishing, Blackstone Publishing, Microcosm, Independent Publishers Group, Gardner's US, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Penguin Random House. Some 450 bookstores in the U.S. use Batch for Books.

Fraser Tanner, Batch for Books CEO, said, "It is wonderful to announce that Simon & Schuster are going to join Batch, their decision to join Batch is a real commitment to the independent bookstores. Batch is now central to the U.S. book trade, simplifying the supply chain, reducing overheads for everyone and improving communication."

Kim Shannon, senior v-p, sales of S&S, said, "Simon & Schuster is delighted to join with Batch in support of independent booksellers. We've heard from our bookselling partners how Batch has created operational efficiencies and streamlined the payment process for them, freeing up time to focus on selling books and supporting readers in their local communities."

Nathan Halter, program manager of Batch for Books, said, "These invaluable publisher partnerships reinforce Batch's dedication to becoming an essential business tool for the bookselling community, delivering significant benefits to both independent bookstores and publishers alike."

ABA CEO Allison Hill said, "ABA is thrilled to have Simon & Schuster participate in Batch. Their involvement is a significant step forward for the industry as we work together on efficiencies and innovation. ABA is grateful to them for their participation and leadership."

At yesterday's opening breakfast, ABA CEO Allison Hill greeted booksellers and spoke eloquently about the current "weight of the world"; the importance of diversity, equity, the freedom to read, free expression; and celebrating booksellers' "tremendously valuable work." She said in part:

"We appreciate you being here and we truly hope this week is a break from the daily pressures of running your business and from the weight of the world.

"I need to take a moment to acknowledge that weight. I know many people have been feeling it, and I specifically want to acknowledge the siege that many in this room have been under this past month of daily proclamations and orders that attempt to erase or undermine you and your voices or the work that you do as booksellers, authors, and publishers. ABA stands with you. We will continue to champion diversity and equity in this industry, and to fight for the right to read and the right to freedom of expression.

Allison Hill

"This week is about celebrating all books and authors--Black, Indigenous, AAPI, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Hispanic, LGBQ, 2S+, Trans, nonbinary--white, straight, and cis. All books. Because great books are by everyone and they should be for everyone.

"Our goal this week is to celebrate--because we need a little celebration right now--and to also offer you support for your work as booksellers with nuts and bolts, financial, and education sessions; energizing programming and networking; and opportunities to meet with business partners and publishers. We also want to support you as people. Note the 30-minute breaks between sessions this year, the quiet room, the meditation and interfaith prayer room, affinity meet-ups, and the many opportunities for connection and community.

"Everyone in this room knows that authors and illustrators spin the world's pain and joy and fear and love into gold. As booksellers, you are the keepers of this treasure, helping readers discover gold and enrich their lives. May this week remind all how tremendously valuable your work is--especially right now--and may it remind you how deeply grateful we are for all of you."

"My wish to become a writer was not born inside the halls of an institution, but in a public library, which led me to a bookstore, which has led me here to you," said poet and novelist Ocean Vuong (The Emperor of Gladness, coming from Penguin May 13; Time Is a Mother; On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous) during his opening keynote Monday morning at Winter Institute 2025 in Denver, Colo.

In a wide-ranging and impassioned talk, Vuong discussed his history as a reader, the different ways books and literature are presented in bookstores and universities, and the role of booksellers and librarians in times of political and civil turmoil.

Vuong recalled that his "first touch with literature" was at a public library in East Hartford, Conn., where his mother would drop him off with the instruction to "read everything, especially what you don't understand." That mandate has stayed with him and guided him, and as an English professor, he said, it is "exactly what I tell my students." The point of reading is not about completing a book, it's about "the book launching you towards other questions."

Ocean Vuong

He remembered being drawn to a pretty, tiny, hardback book with a red cover that turned out to be Poetry as Insurgent Art by poet and City Lights co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was the "perfect book" for Vuong to read as an 18-year-old, and it launched him into the poetry section. It also led a year later to a trip to San Francisco, where he stopped by City Lights to "pay homage."

In his time as an English professor, Vuong said he has "noticed a peculiar thing," that despite being "surrounded by books" and a "fervor" for literature and storytelling in these departments, he never hears what he hears when he steps into a bookstore, which is "what do you like to read?"

Instead of that question guiding literary education, English departments follow what Vuong called a "dogmatic, monolithic ideology" and "teach according to greatness, towards a pantheon." Unlike some of his peers who took greatness and the pantheon as "fixed truths," Vuong began asking why, and found that the "question of greatness starts to fall apart."

He identified two broad functions of art, with one being prominence and the other being greatness. Art that is prominent is art that "functions within the community," while art that is great is "removed from the populace." He called it "no accident" that what came out of the formation of the canon in the Enlightenment was then used to "dominate the global south" and "subdue those of lower classes."

Vuong found that in many of his classes, "creativity was shunned," and the goal was only "understanding the preset rules of greatness" so that they could be regurgitated later. But in the bookstore, he said, "it was absolutely different." A bookseller will ask, "what do you like to read," the "borders of dogma and genre" break down, and one can go from Octavia Butler to Catcher in the Rye. It's the local community, and not the institution, Vuong asserted, that "privileges creativity, freedom, and delight."

"As expensive as books can be, a hardcover being $30, it's still cheaper than tuition," he said. "Having been through multiple schools, sometimes those classes ain't all that. I say that as a professor myself. Ultimately, it is your relationship with a book and your community--that's it."

The ideology of greatness, he said, can be traced all the way back to Plato's Republic, in which good literature is that which "supports and fortifies the state" and poets are banished for their ability to deceive. He called Plato's treatise "quite fascistic and terrifying," and said it was "no surprise" that dictators like Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot have implemented Plato's vision of silencing poets and controlling language.

Vuong elaborated on the power of language, noting that no matter what great things are invented, it is only through language that we can "convince each other to live or die for these things." No war, he said, "has been launched on gunfire or a stroke of the blade alone."

In times of "democratic and civil precarity" such as the present moment, Vuong said, "new sites and methods of linguistic subversion are necessary. New archives must be opened and made anew."

He encouraged booksellers not to think, "I'm just a bookseller, I just work retail," but to see themselves as being "engaged in the work of cultural legibility" and to see themselves "as leaders in this frame." Writers like himself, he added, "owe their life and work" to that frame.

Remarked Vuong: "Perhaps the most luminous north star for any education, literary or otherwise, is the question that has since been the pillar of your practice--what do you like to read?"

He thanked booksellers for "offering another path," saying that "when all the paths are burning up, as they seem to be now, we might look back one day with relief that there is still a narrow passage forward made by a handful of people who believe in language." --Alex Mutter

Book Club Bar will open a second location, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, N.Y., this spring.

Book Club Bar in Manhattan's East Village

The bookstore and bar, which opened in Manhattan's East Village in November 2019, announced the news on social media last week.

The new store will reside at 380 Troutman St. in Bushwick. Per co-owners Erin Neary and Nat Esten, it will be larger than the original East Village location, allowing for more seating and a larger book inventory.

The layout will be similar, though the new store will have some unique design elements to make it distinct from the original store. The owners noted that while the book selection will be generally similar, inventory choices over time will be guided by community tastes and feedback. As for drinks, the menu will be identical save for the inclusion of beer taps at the Bushwick location.

Esten and Neary said the expansion has "been a dream of ours almost since the very beginning. We have a strong attachment to Bushwick and we have always felt that Book Club Bar would fit neatly into the community there. We looked for the right space for years, and when we found this spot we knew it was just what we'd been looking for."

Prior to founding Book Club Bar, Neary and Esten had lived in the East Village for more than a decade. The original store, which is located at 197 East 3rd St., carries an all-ages, general-interest inventory and is designed to evoke a cozy, living room feel. The beverage selection includes beer, wine, and coffee, and a variety of gift and nonbook items are available.

The owners expect a late spring opening for the new store.

Publisher and author Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, who "launched his publishing firm with one of the boldest gambles of a short-lived British literary era marked by high hopes, big money and gossip-fueled ebullience," died January 20, the Guardian reported. He was 85.

In 1990, the former managing director of Hamish Hamilton launched his own imprint, Sinclair-Stevenson, with a biography of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd. "His famously generous advances rested on the prospect of lucrative sales of paperback rights to larger publishers," the Guardian wrote. "But this brief spell of what economists would call 'irrational exuberance' in the U.K. book trade could not last. By 1992, his imprint had been sold to the Reed group, which in 1995 passed it to Random House--which closed it down."

As an author, Sinclair-Stevenson's books include That Sweet Enemy (1987), Inglorious Rebellion (1971), and Blood Royal (1979). Earlier, he had translated novels by Georges Simenon. 

The authors he worked with included Rose Tremain, Susan Hill, Isabel Colgate, Paul Theroux, and William Boyd. Sinclair-Stevenson became Boyd's publisher in 1970, with Any Human Heart. Boyd told the Bookseller: "It was a long and enduring friendship. We had regular lunches, year on year. He was a vitally important figure in my career, picking my book of short stories, On the Yankee Station (1981), out of the slush-pile and commissioning my first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981)."

Author Julian Evans, who started his career as an editor and quit publishing after 10 years to write his first book, Transit of Venus: Travels in the Pacific, said, "Christopher gave me my first opening in the book world as an extremely junior editor, telling me he thought editors should have modest salaries but generous expense accounts, so you could meet and entertain potential authors."

Evans added that what characterized Sinclair-Stevenson was "his loyalty and enthusiasm, his attention and wisdom--as well as joyful lunches and decent advances. He would read a manuscript as soon as he received it, arrange lunch and offer plenty of praise. He embodied a civilized era of publishing that now looks like an irretrievable golden time, in which an editor's judgement, not sales figures, determined whether he'd take you on as an author."

Francis Bennett, managing director of Marble Hill Publishers, was Sinclair-Stevenson's boss in the 1980s and they remained close friends. "Many writers owe the start of their careers to Christopher's gift for spotting true talent early on," Bennett said. "He was a wonderful editor and agent, always loyal to his authors. He may be a representative of a publishing world that has passed but his achievements deserve to be celebrated."

"We had another bookstore proposal on Friday!" Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, Ky., posted on Instagram. "This one took place at our Bardstown Road store. It was so cute and heartwarming! There were tears, there were flowers, and there were some big, bright smiles. Congratulations to Cara & Kameron! We're wishing you many, many years of joy, love, and good books."

"BIG DEAL ALERT." Paper Places Bookshop, Jasper, Ala., shared a photo on Facebook of the shop's sandwich chalkboard sales deal: "Free elephant rides with a book purchase!* (*Just don't forget to bring your own elephant!) 

At Macmillan, Aliya Burke has joined 23rd Street Books as brand manager.

---

Julie Coryell has joined Penguin Publishing Group as publicist, backlist.

Teen Depression Gone Viral: Why Kids Are More Vulnerable Than Ever and How You Can Protect Your Child's Health and Happiness by Dr. Meredith E. Ganser (Guilford Press).

Today:
Here & Now: Tamara Lanier, author of From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy (Crown, $30, 9780593727720).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop, authors of The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better (Crown, $30, 9780593727072).

Also on CBS Mornings: Don Dahler, author of Souvenirs from an Absurd Life: A Memoir (Post Hill Press, $19.99, 9798888458570).

The View: Chelsea Handler, author of I'll Have What She's Having (The Dial Press, $32, 9780593596579).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Savannah Guthrie, author of Mostly What God Does is Love You (Zonderkidz, $19.99, 9780310160281).

Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman will write and direct Later the War, based on Iddo Gefen's short story "Debby's Dream House," published in his collection Jerusalem Beach. The cast includes Eddie Redmayne (Day of the Jackal), Tessa Thompson (His & Hers, Hedda), and Patsy Ferran, Deadline reported. 

Ken Kao and Josh Rosenbaum of Waypoint Entertainment will produce, alongside Sarah Green of Brace Cove Productions and Steven Demmler. The film will be financed by 131 Pictures, with WME Independent and CAA Media Finance co-representing worldwide distribution rights.

Giada Scodellaro won the $10,000 Novel Prize, which recognizes works that "explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and are innovative and imaginative in style," for her debut novel, Ruins, Child. The biennial award is for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers from around the world. 

In addition to a cash prize, the winner receives simultaneous publication in North America by New Directions, in the U.K. and Ireland by Fitzcarraldo Editions, and in Australia and New Zealand by Giramondo. 

Scodellaro commented: "I am so humbled, so thrilled, so in awe of this outcome. What a dream it is for this work to exist outside of myself. A collaboration with the extraordinary New Directions, Fitzcarraldo, and Giramondo affords Ruins, Child an urgent and expansive opportunity--a life."

In climate journalist and fiction writer Emma Pattee's nuanced debut novel, Tilt, an expectant mother must make a harrowing and illuminating trek across her hometown of Portland, Ore., which has been distorted into a disaster zone by a catastrophic earthquake.

At nine months, Annie is tired of being pregnant. She's reaching her breaking point in IKEA, of all places, while doing some last-minute shopping for a crib. But before she can snap, something else does. Next thing she knows, she's on the ground under a pile of shelves and boxes, and the world around her has changed irrevocably. When Annie emerges from IKEA, she finds her familiar city has been transformed into an anarchic landscape. Now, she must traverse the city to find her husband, as she confronts loss and grief; unexpected and even desperate hope; and her own disappointments and anxieties along the way.

Based on its description alone, Tilt may sound like a nightmare for expectant mothers; yet Pattee's surprisingly tender portrait of motherhood is enough to buoy even the most fearful reader. Always pragmatic and never sentimental, Annie's first-person narration guides readers through what might seem unimaginable but is nevertheless, like most things, ultimately bearable. What's more, even faced with some serious doom and gloom, Annie manages to be funny, her dry humor at once acceptable and wrenching in its attempts to push her through real turmoil. With Annie at its helm, this all-in-one-day survival story manages to be thrilling and thoughtful, distressing and joyful.

Fears, uncertainties, and hopes about motherhood form the spine of Tilt, to be sure. But Annie's character is formed by more than motherhood alone. Stitched into Annie's surreal circumstances are her discontent with her career, her grief over losing her mother, and her wrenching sadness and frustration over her wavering marriage. When the world is turned upside down, Pattee's novel suggests, these familiar concerns aren't erased but rather thrown into terrifying, yet still clarifying, relief. Priorities stabilize. Unexpected capabilities emerge. And the external challenges Annie comes to face seem viscerally appropriate for what she is confronting internally. As Annie's journey is facilitated and interrupted by other fiercely determined mothers and even a few bloodthirsty teenagers, readers can't help but think that for all its horror, this post-quake world may not be that different from the chaotic landscapes women often must find not just the will but the determination to survive. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor

Shelf Talker: Emma Pattee's debut novel, Tilt, offers a devastating and funny, wrenching yet hopeful portrait of motherhood and marriage in the near-apocalyptic context of environmental devastation.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
2. Culture Matters by Jenni Catron
3. On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves
4. Shallow River by H.D. Carlton
5. Reclaim Me by J.L. Seegars
6. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
7. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
8. The Unlikely Thru-Hiker by Derick Lugo
9. Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
10. Leave Me Behind by K.M. Moronova

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]