We’ve run out of polite synonyms for modest and soft, so we’ll start our final look at the dealmaking patterns leading into the London Book Fair with what jumped out as most distinctive. Debut fiction is always a closely-watched market bellwether, particularly as the mainstream fiction market appears to languish. The good news is that…
Book Fairs
Deal Counts Are Modest Heading Into LBF, With Only Moderate Investment In Debut Fiction
With dealmakers converging on the London Book Fair next week, it’s time for us to bring our traditional dose of statistically-based reality to the frenzy of pre-Fair deals coverage. As always, this is preliminary, with two more business days of deal reports to log before we provide you fuller analysis next Tuesday. So far, the…
People: Holt’s EIC Comes From Within
Following the departure of Gillian Blake for Crown Trade in early December, new Holt publisher Ben Schrank has filled the editor-in-chief position from within the company. Executive editor Serena Jones is being promoted to editor in chief. Metropolitan Books publisher and co-founder Sara Bershtel moves up to senior vice president (with Maggie Richards being named…
ABA Town Hall: Stock Shortages, Minimum Wage, and More
On the final day of Winter Institute, ABA ceo Oren Teacher announced that next year’s event will take place in Baltimore on January 21-24, 2020. On Thursday morning, the ABA Town Hall began with an update from the diversity task force, which will become a permanent committee going forward. The group is working on a…
Realistic Expectations at Winter Institute
ABA ceo Oren Teicher spoke to international attendees at a lunchtime session on The State of the U.S. Book Industry, as part of Wednesday’s opening day of Winter Institute (Wi14) in Albuquerque, NM. He struck a cautious note that echoed throughout the day, noting that indie booksellers had “a pretty consistent year,” with a 4.9…
People, Etc.
Alessandra Bastagli has joined Dey Street Books as executive editor. She was previously editorial director of Nation Books. Warren Bass will leave Penguin Press after almost a year to return to the Wall Street Journal’s weekend Review section, “with a nicely tailored portfolio of commissioning and editing big essays that’ll include lots of ongoing interface with the publishing…