Kelly Leaving Houghton

After 25 years with Houghton Mifflin—the last five as senior v-p of the trade and reference division—Teri Kelly will leave once a replacement is found. A search is underway to find a successor, according to a corporate spokesperson, who said Kelly's departure is not connected to Riverdeep's recent acquisition of HM.

January Store Sales Dip

After falling for the last six months of 2006, bookstore sales declined again in January. According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, bookstore sales dipped 1.0% in the month, to $2.12 billion. Sales for the entire retail segment rose 4.0%.

Tenet Memoir To Pub April 30

After several postponements, HarperCollins announced last week that it will publish ex-CIA director George Tenet's long-anticipated memoir, At the Center of the Storm, on April 30. The book, at one point set for a February 1 release, has an announced 300,000-copy first printing.

Audio Renaissance Starts Kids' Unit

Holtzbrinck's Audio Renaissance division will start a children's audio line April 3 with the release of The One and Only Shrek!, a compendium of picture book titles by William Steig. The audio kickoff dovetails with the launch of Holtzbrinck's Square Fish children's imprint, which will publish the deluxe hardcover edition of the Steig collection. Audio Renaissance publisher Mary Beth Roche said the children's audio line will develop organically, with no set number of titles.

L.B. May Buys Remainder Show

L.B. May and Associates, owner of the Spring Book Show in Atlanta, has purchased Nashville's five-year-old Onboard Remainder Book Show from founder Larry Austin. The show will be relocated to Atlanta, where it will take place from August 10—12 at the Georgia World Congress Center. Both shows focus on the sale of remainders, though the summer show will add sidelines. The still-to-be renamed show is aimed at helping stores order remainders for the holiday season.

Basic Ideas From Perseus

Perseus Books Group has formed Basic Ideas, a new imprint that will produce short volumes that "narrate the life of the work and the idea it represents." The works, dubbed "biographies" by Perseus, will cover a wide array of subjects, from books to speeches to architecture. Basic Ideas will launch in fall 2007 with former NYT op-ed columnist Anthony Lewis's volume on the First Amendment and historian John Lukacs's take on Churchill's May 1940 "Blood, Toil, Sweat and Tears" speech.

Changes at Down East

Neale Sweet, former president of Macmillan's reference book division, has retired as publisher of the book division of Down East Enterprises. John Viehman, who was appointed director of marketing for Down East Enterprise last June, has been named acting publisher of Down East Books. Viehman plans to further the book unit's branding efforts with its affiliated magazine group.