Archives for June 2024
Obituary: Gary Urda
Gary Urda, 59, senior vice president of sales at Simon & Schuster, died suddenly on the morning of June 24, after collapsing at the gym. Urda began his career at S&S in 1996 as vp for sales development at Pocket Books and held a series of positions in both Atria/Pocket Books and the sales division before becoming senior vice president, sales. S&S ceo and president Jonathan Karp writes, “Gary was the best kind of colleague – engaged, thoughtful, attentive, constructive, upbeat, humorous, warm, and always approachable, personable, and capable. He was a quintessential sales executive, with a deep knowledge of […]
Saturday Books On The New “New Adult”
VP, editorial director Sara Goodman shared more details about Saturday Books, the new “New Adult” imprint from St. Martin’s Press that sits alongside YA imprint Wednesday Books. The imprint seems to be a way of reclaiming and redefining the term “New Adult,” which came to describe steamy romances about–and with the intended audience of–people in their early 20’s. The moniker has fallen out of favor in the industry in recent years: In 2013 at the category’s height, PM recorded 51 New Adult deals; in 2023 that number dropped to 7. Though the current success of authors who cross age categories […]
The New List For June 20
Our bestseller list The New List exclusively tracks new releases based on Circana Bookscan data. With lists updating on Fridays, we’re bringing you highlights weekly in Lunch, along with the complete fiction and nonfiction hardcover lists. These are the highlights for Friday, June 20. Elin Hilderbrand’s 30th novel in her Nantucket series, Swan Song, tops the fiction hardcover list, toppling Eruption by Michael Crichton, which fell to second place. Camino Ghosts by John Grisham, previously No. 2, has been pushed to No. 3. You Like It Darker by Stephen King, now fourth, has now been on the list for four […]
People 6/21
Here’s A First: Some Actual Amazon Book Sales Data
Business Insider obtained a rare document: A 25 page confidential report, “used for a weekly business review at Amazon,” that provides data about their book retailing business for the first 10 months of 2022. It’s not the complete data of our dreams, and the reporter has not posted the full document so there are many nuances and gray areas that still leave us with more questions than definitive conclusions. (Per their historical policy of not providing data like this on an official basis, the company declined to provide any clarity on the data, or validate the article in any way.) […]