Amazon has released their annual “Charts” package for 2018 highlighting some bestselling books and other notables. Last year they focused on the “most read” books of the year, but this time they return to a more conventional lens on the most sold books. In another adjustment, this year, the Charts include sales across print, Kindle, Audible and their Amazon Books stores. The data shows that the top titles at Amazon are not in direct line with the top titles across the entire market, and may give a few clues for anyone trying to merchandise against the giant etailer. We compared […]
Best of
Trump Books, The Women of Fiction, and Expanded Books Coverage in 2018
NY Magazine looks at “Book Publishing’s No Good, Very Good Year of Trump” for their best of 2018 package. Fortunately, PW debated making Donald Trump their “person of the year,” they report, but realized that would be a mistake: “We were afraid that no matter how we explained it, if we put him on the cover, it would look like Publishers Weekly had endorsed Trump.” (I can tell you now that here at PL we’ll be calling it the Year of the Asterisk, but we won’t explain that for a while.) Holt president and publisher Steve Rubin says he has […]
People, Etc.
Arcadia Publishing coo Paul Raffle has stepped down from his position, succeeded by former Perseus Books Group coo Charles Gallagher. Lezen Acquisition bought the company back in May and Raffle had agreed to stay on through the transition, and he will consult on a part-time basis going forward. Gallagher has been consulting for Arcadia for six months, and has relocated to Charleston, SC. Arcadia ceo (and former Perseus ceo alongside Gallagher) David Steinberger said in a letter to staff, “Paul has been true to his word, and over the past months has worked very hard and very effectively to position Arcadia […]
More Bests (Goodread, NYT Critics, New Yorker) and the First of the Best of the Best Books of 2018
The “best books” lists are arriving in a wave: The New York Times their individual critics’ favorite books of the year — books editor and staff writer John Williams writes, “If we had to use a single word to describe the past year in books, it might be eclectic” — and Janet Maslin is still contributing her own ten favorites. Dwight Garner’s list includes Sheila Heti’s Motherhood and Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, both excerpted in our Buzz Books 2018 Spring/Summer sampler. Elsewhere, there are Katy Waldman’s picks at the New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly‘s top 10; best of 2018 packages from Apple […]
Another Best Books List from the Chicago Tribune, and More Picks
The Chicago Tribune named its ten best books of 2018, including Sheila Heti’s novel, which is available to sample now in our Buzz Books 2018 Spring/Summer. The full list: Nonfiction Boom Town, by Sam Anderson This Land, by Dan Barry Frederick Douglass, by David W. Blight Rising, by Elizabeth Rush Feel Free, by Zadie Smith Fiction Motherhood, by Sheila Heti The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson X-Men: Grand Design, by Ed Piskor The Overstory, by Richard Powers Heads of the Colored People, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires In other selections JP Morgan announced its annual recommended reading list, and […]
The NYT’s Ten Best Books of the Year
For the first time, the New York Times announced its ten best books of year at a live event in Manhattan on Thursday morning, at the Greene Space, recorded for their podcast. Book Review editor Pamela Paul spoke with a panel of NYT editors about each selection, stating that a best book of the year is “a book that is not only of the moment but a book that we think transcends the moment.” The five fiction selections include debuts from Lisa Halliday and Tommy Orange, as well as Esi Eduygan’s Giller Prize-winning novel. The complete list: Fiction The Great Believers, […]