The AAP announced statistics for January from their participating StatShot publishers, reporting total sales across the industry of $1.3 billion, 3.7 percent higher than last year. Trade sales were up 4.3 percent to $720.6 million. Adult sales were almost flat at $461.9 million, a 0.6 percent increase over January 2021, while children’s and YA sales continued to increase to $194 million, a 12 percent gain. Within children’s, hardcovers were up 11.5 percent, paperbacks were up 23.6 percent while ebooks fell 17.8 percent. In print, overall trade hardcover sales were $261.4 million, up 6.9 percent, and paperbacks sales were $250.6 million, […]
Archives for March 2022
People 3/11
Margot Atwell has been named executive director and publisher at Feminist Press. She was previously director of outreach and international for Kickstarter and publisher of Beaufort Books.
Storytelling In The Cultural Moment At ABA Snow Days
On Thursday morning, Emma Straub moderated a keynote at ABA Snow Days titled “Storytelling in the Cultural Moment.” The talk featured Jennifer Egan, Celeste Ng, and Kali Fajardo-Anstine speaking mostly about their forthcoming novels, but also addressing what it’s like to be a novelist in an era of social upheaval and global pandemic. Asked how the current moment contributed to her new book, Our Missing Hearts, Ng said the recent attacks on Asian Americans “became a sort of seed crystal around which the rest of the book started to focus.” She said, “It felt like something that I needed to […]
Apollo Has Been Trying to Acquire Pearson
Private equity company Apollo Global Management has tried twice to purchase educational publisher Pearson since last November. Pearson declined an 800 pence per share in November and another offer of 854.2 pence per share on March 7, finding that Apollo “significantly undervalued the Company and its future prospects.” On Friday, following online rumors, Apollo said formally that it “notes the recent market speculation in relation to Pearson and confirms it is in the preliminary stages of evaluating a possible cash offer by certain of Apollo’s affiliated funds” to buy Pearson. Under London Stock Exchange rules, Apollo has until April 8 […]
People 3/10
LuAnn Walther, senior vice president and editorial director of Vintage Books, Anchor Books and Everyman’s Library is retiring on July 1 after 40 years.
WNDB and HBG Launch Program to Support Mid-Career Professionals
We Need Diverse Books has partnered with Hachette Book Group and Beacon Press to launch Rise Up: Retention Program for Diverse Mid-Level Publishing Professionals, inspired by Lee & Low’s 2019 Diversity Baseline Survey. “The survey’s data highlights the importance of retaining diverse mid-level publishing professionals since many leave the industry within three to six years, due to barriers like toxic workplace environments, lack of room for career growth, and unsustainable pay,” WNDB said in a release. Sponsored by HBG and Beacon Press and geared toward both adult and children’s staffers, Rise Up builds on the WNDB Internship Grant Program, which was […]