Tessa James has been promoted to assistant editor at William Morrow.
Archives for July 2021
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Top of the Charts: The Year’s Biggest New Release So Far
As print sales for 2021 recorded by NPD Bookscan have shown unprecedented strength so far — still up 17 percent year-over-year even with recent moderation — the very top of the list has in contrast been uncharacteristically soft. Big bestsellers have not been pulling the market, even though frontlist in general is up 11 percent for the year, and frontlist adult hardcovers as a group are selling almost 23 percent better year-to-date than the average from the past five years. Up until this week, only three new 2021 releases opened with tracked print sales of over 100,000 units: Dav Pilkey’s […]
SCBWI Director to Retire Following Controversy
Co-founder and longtime executive director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Lin Oliver said in an email that she will retire at the end of this year (which she then confirmed to PW). The organization has been embroiled in controversy following a post in June by chief equity and inclusion officer April Powers condemning antisemitism. When a Palestinian American member asked for a similar statement condemning Islamophobia, she was blocked from the organization’s social media and her comments were deleted. Powers subsequently apologized for “mishandling the moment” and resigned, and Oliver apologized to “our Muslim and Palestinian […]
People 7/22
Sydney Tillman join Little, Brown Children's as publicity manager on July 26. She was most recently at Scholastic.
Biden Administration Bolsters Opposition to Industry Consolidation
President Joe Biden said he will nominate attorney Jonathan Kanter to run the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. As a private attorney, Kanter represented companies — including News Corp. — in legal actions against tech giants including Google and Apple. As the White House statement notes, “Throughout his career, Kanter has also been a leading advocate and expert in the effort to promote strong and meaningful antitrust enforcement and competition policy.” His boutique firm The Kanter Law Group “advocates in favor of federal and state antitrust law enforcement.” That appointment aligns with a sweeping executive order from the White House […]