Alison Rich has been promoted to the newly created role of senior vice president, author development, Penguin Random House, reporting to Nina von Moltke. She “will take the lead in helping us push further with the author brand development work.” Rich continues to oversee licensing-business development for the adult divisions, the Out of Print merchandising group, and the Author Portal, which will “look to build functionality and programming.” Newly reporting to her is vp, executive director PRH Speakers Bureau Tiffany Tomlin. Laura Eckes has been promoted to senior designer for Simon & Schuster Children’s and Paula Wiseman Books. At Atheneum, […]
Book Fairs
London Book Fair Hopes for A Live Show at the End of June
Until the pandemic is under control there will not be any large, live trade fairs, so the London Book Fair has set new, later dates for 2021 “to create the best opportunity of hosting a live event.” Originally scheduled for March 9–11, the organizers announced plans (and hopes) to convene June 29–July 1. While it gives them room to wait for an improvement in public health, it would put the show in an awkward time slot traditionally avoided by big fairs for good, practical reasons. For US attendees, it also puts the event right in front of the long Independence […]
More Deal Stats: A Lot of Debuts, and A Rebound for Fiction
As noted in yesterday’s overview of US deal reports ahead of when the Frankfurt Book Fair would have convened, a notable strength this year has been a surge in debut fiction sales. As this chart makes clear, the 59 reports in the measured period are almost twice the average number of debut fiction sales from recent years. (On top of that, we logged another 5 debut fiction sales on Wednesday that are not included in this count.) In line with that increased volume, reported six-figure or better deals for debuts are also higher than ever, with 12 such transactions, including […]
No Fair, But Abundant Deals
As indicated in our early look at the first three weeks of post-Labor Day dealmaking in the US, transactions have remained strong in the five weeks and one day that we measure every year as the pre-Frankfurt Book Fair period. Here are the updated results, now with pretty charts. Total deal volume was up Pre-Frankfurt US deal totals have been consistently dead flat for the past five years — but this year, they spiked to their second-highest total in the past decade. Overall reports were up 11.5 percent over last year (81 more deals). And this year’s count was just […]
Rights Pitches Begin
Virtual pitch sessions filling the gap following the cancellation of the Frankfurt Book Fair begin next Monday. From our modest crowd-sourced schedule, the week begins with the Pontas Agency presenting Booker-shortlisted Avni Doshi and her UK editor Hermione Thompson, though BURNT SUGAR has already been licensed in many territories. To add your event(s) to our schedule, just fill in the form at publun.ch/pitches. As noted previously we’re agnostic as to whether you have scheduled your own independent event, or one as part of FBF’s pitch webinar program. To view our schedule, just bookmark: publun.ch/pitchsessions.
Fall Dealmaking Shows Strong Start
With the Frankfurt Book Fair cancelled, we are taking a preliminary look at the big fall “dealmaking season” a full three weeks after Labor Day. (Ordinarily, we chart pre-FBF deal trends according to the five-plus weeks between Labor Day and the Tuesday before the Fair.) So far, the market for new deals is looking strong in a number of ways, in line with healthy print book sales in recent weeks, and financial reports showing trade publishers managing reasonably well during the pandemic and improving their performance during the summer. Of course it’s too early to know if dealmakers have simply […]