Penguin Random House: PRH Sales’ Wendy Pearl, Author-Bookseller Emma Straub 2022 PW Sales Rep, Bookstore of the Year Finalists

The much-coveted annual Publishers Weekly respective competitions for Sales Representative and Bookstore of the Year each have a 2022 finalist dear to us.

Our West Coast colleague Wendy Pearl is one of the five nominees for this year’s Sales Rep award, selected by a panel of judges, says PW, “not only for their dedication to their roles, but also for going above and beyond to support their bookstore clients, writers, and readers.”

Pearl joined Putnam as a sales rep in March 1989, and has been based in San Francisco these ensuing three-plus decades. In a territory renowned for outstanding book people, she has been a constant, incandescent inspiration for customers and colleagues.

Although Penguin Random House ought not play favorites in the Bookstore of the Year competition, it is hard not to have a special rooting interest for Books Are Magic, the Brooklyn-based retailer co-owned by Riverhead author Emma Straub . Her books include four novels, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures—and a short story collection, Other People We Married. Books Are Magic, co-owned by Straub and her husband Michael Fusco-Straub, opened in May 2017 and, as Straub describes, “is home to exciting new releases and beloved classics, hidey-holes for children and books to read in them … and yes, plenty of magic.”

Jim Milliot, PW VP & Editorial Director, describes the nominees as “not only beloved by writers and the publishing community, but also play a significant role in their communities.”