The “silence breakers” earned person of the year honors from Time magazine and from people around the country. As the magazine aptly wrote: “It became a hashtag, a movement, a reckoning. But it began, as great social change nearly always does, with individual acts of courage.” We should not let the year end without reviewing some of the notable revelations and effects of #metoo on book publishing. Documented accusations have been more modest than in film and television, though the story that started the movement, exposing Harvey Weinstein’s horrendous acts, had near immediate resonance in book publishing. MSNBC news personality […]
Archives for December 2017
Another Chance: A Publishers Marketplace Year-End Free Trial
Everyone else is on break but we have posted a number of important updates today at PublishersMarketplace.com (and in the paid Publishers Lunch Deluxe), including an analysis of holiday book sales, a detailed wrap-up of sexual harassment cases and their impact on book publishing, an aggregation of some prominent lists highlighting new 2018 titles, and still more. (We also ran many stories of note on December 22 when others had already packed up for the holiday.) If you’re interested, you can check it all out with our second, year-end free trial offer. Join our site now and check out all of […]
Once Again, Last Minute Surge Lifts Holiday Book Sales
In keeping with recent trends, books look to be what people buy as last-minute gifts: A final week surge lifted print book sales for the five-week holiday period into positive territory compared to last year, for at least the fourth year in a row. Bookscan statistics published Thursday show print book sales for the week ending December 24 through outlets they track of approximately 34.47 million units, or 2.16 million units above the same week last year, up 6.7 percent. That made all the difference, putting print sales over the past five weeks up 1.53 million units overall versus 2016, […]
Briefs: Tody Eady Dies, Plus Sensitivity Questions
In the UK, literary agent Toby Eady died on December 24. David Higham Associates, which acquired Eady’s agency in 2015, noted in a statement, “With great sadness we have to announce the death of our colleague, Toby Eady. Toby was a maverick, a passionate champion of his authors and advocate of their work.” He started Toby Eady Associates in 1968, and Bernard Cornwall was his first client. Self-published hit Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls has become the focus of complaints for featuring Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi as one its 100 great women. As British Labor MP and shadow justice minister […]
Still Selling: Abrams Drops More BNED
Investor David Abrams and Abrams Capital Management continued to pullback on their large investment in Barnes & Noble Education. Following the sale of 1.76 million shares through December 18, further SEC filings show Abrams selling off another 276,000 shares on December 14, 15, 18 and 19.
Wolitzer, Zumas, Jones, and More Top 2018 Preview Lists
With the year winding down, the 2018 book previews have begun in earnest. Entertainment Weekly, HuffPost, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Nylon, and Bustle are among those to have all posted extensive lists, and iBooks has rounded up its most anticipated winter titles. (Titles noted with an asterisk are available to sample now in our Buzz Books 2017 Fall/Winter collection.) For fiction, The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer is the consensus pick, appearing on all but the iBooks list, as it publishes on April 3. Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks (Little Brown, 1/16), Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage (Algonquin 2/6), and Chloe Benjamin’s The […]