Alexis Nixon has been promoted to associate director of publicity at Berkley.
KF Literary Scouting has been appointed adult scout for Hoffman und Campe in Germany, and will also continue scouting children’s and YA titles for Harper Germany.
Relief
The extended #SaveIndieBookstores campaign raised a total of $1.24 million.
Events
Book Expo said it will hold an extensive line-up of panels online May 26-29, including its Adult Buzz Panel and its Adult and Children’s Book Breakfasts (which have been moved to dinner time), and a number of BookCon virtual consumer events will follow over the weekend. More information will be announced soon.
Meanwhile, we were already makings plans for a digital treat of our own: We’re convening a Publishers Lunch Buzz Books Presents (#LunchBuzz) Zoom panel of six top editors presenting a breakout fall title in the format you know and love, on Wednesday, May 20 at 7 pm EST. We’ve curated the feature titles from the forthcoming new edition of our popular digital samplers, and we have other surprises in store. (The event will also serve as a fundraiser for BINC.) We will be taking pre-registrations starting next week — so save the date, and save the quicklink https://publun.ch/LunchBuzz — and we’ll have more to share soon!
Distribution
Consortium Book Sales & Distribution will distribute Agnes & Aubrey, Centrala, and Common Notions starting May 30.
Sales News
NPD Bookscan reported print book sales for the week ending May 2, with sales gaining significantly and looking like a “normal” or strong sales week for the first time since work-from-home orders affected the landscape. Total print units sold were 12.24 million, up almost 11 percent from 11.04 million units the previous week — and the week compared favorably to the same week a year ago as well, when unit sales for the week ending May 4 were 11.58 million units.
All of the gains and then some came from adult sales, which built on last week’s gains and look more like a “normal” week for the first since the crisis began. Adult titles moved 7.8 million units, a gain of almost 25 percent over 6.26 million units the previous week. Juvenile books, which have been pulling the market during the crisis, fell in the week over week comparison and also returned to more normal levels, at 4.02 million units, versus 4.39 million units a week ago.