Where is
Phillip Sansone? The longtime Austin book merchant is now the former CEO of Book People, though he's still a stockholder brought in for "special projects" and will perform in an advisory capacity to
Stan Biderman and
Abe Zimmerman, two local investors in Book People, both of them UT law school grads who are now the co-chief operating officers. Zimmerman has interests in Threadgill's and helped establish Katz's Deli, among other interests; Biderman is also a businessman but had a collection of poetry published in 1996 by Plainview Press titled Everything Changes (an oddly prescient title, don't you think?). Biderman and Zimmerman have been busy consulting with Sansone, the board of directors, and investors for several months but began on-site management last Tuesday. At that time, they held a meeting with employees where two significant points were made: First, that while there's no denying that Book People, like any business, is ultimately in the business of making money, everyone involved also wants to have fun, the implication clearly being that under Sansone's management low employee morale was often an issue. The new officers stress, though, that Book People is debt-free and that there will be a pay raise, though with no set date, for the some 95 employees, none of whom have been laid off in the current consolidation process taking place in the closing of the third floor. Biderman and Zimmerman state several goals for the store under their "open-ended" tenure, like delivering "legendary customer service" and "not backing down" from the increasing presence of the chain bookstores in town, Biderman saying that, "If we do a smart job here, Austin will support us" and that they both want to "fulfill Phillip's vision, which is to have one of the best bookstores in the country." Sansone's contract with Book People is up at the end of this year, a fact the officers cite in saying that it is "not true" that Sansone found out during a leave of absence that he recently took that he was to be fired as CEO and that "no discussions about termination" have taken place. Biderman and Zimmerman state that Sansone is currently working off-site on the store's consolidation process. Part of the problem with the third-floor space is that not enough customers were going there; Biderman for one thinks that that was where the store's most interesting titles were shelved. Sansone had not returned calls requesting comment by presstime.
Love in the Time of...
Martha Hopkins is the determined darling behind InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook; she was in town at Barnes & Noble Westlake last week to sign the book. She and co-author Randall Lockridge formed Terrace Publishing to publish the book, figuring that, if anything, "food and sex should sell," and it has, to the tune of 75,000 copies. But more noteworthy to me at least is the fact that the authors, who attended Baylor together, live in Waco and that they even got a mention of the book in the Baylor alumni magazine. Those Baylor people... first it's dancing and now this. Hopkins reports strong sales in Waco, to boot. The woman in the asparagus skirt, by which I indicate her entire wardrobe in that photograph, was head of the Baptist Student Union at Baylor. If you're thinking "sexy" for Valentine's Day, this title could be what you're thinking of, and I'm not talking about the cooking. If you can't find it at local bookstores, you can call 800/372-2311. The book's website is http://www.intercourses.com (and be sure to put that final "s" on "intercourses").
