Consistent with our deal stats preview from Friday, the most notable trend from this London Book Fair dealmaking season is the surge of big deals — and “major” deals in particular — for nonfiction. And that’s without counting Hachette’s pickup of Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein’s next book, or other just-announced nonfiction from today including books from Ash Carter, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Senator Doug Jones. (Our LBF count covers the five weeks leading up to the show, from Monday, March 5 to Monday, April 9.) The 11 major nonfiction deals are the most we have ever reported in an LBF lead-up: Overall […]
Deals
London Book Fair Deal Trends: Market Swings Hard to Nonfiction
It’s that time again. We leave behind the luminous, rapturous accounts of heated snapping up of a few projects in advance of an upbeat rights fair to give you a look at the actual data on the marketplace for new book projects over the past five weeks, starting March 5. As usual, today we provide a preliminary look at the breakdowns — from which the trends are already quite clear — and we will follow up Tuesday morning, when the London Book Fair formally opens, with the final totals. Coming off a year in which some of the biggest names […]
People, Etc.
Noah Eaker will join Flatiron Books as editorial director, reporting to Amy Einhorn, starting November 13. He has been executive editor at Random House. Jessica Williams has been promoted to senior editor at William Morrow. Sarah Armstrong has been promoted to client relations manager at Ingram Publisher Services. Vogue talks to Ghost, the “real-life New York book editor” who helps the writing staff of TV show Younger “understand the arcane workings of book publishing. “Ghost has worked in the industry since the ’90s and has published books that you definitely know by title. His list includes a blue-chip White House memoir, another […]
Briefs: New EL James, New Chandler Reps, Brzezinski Expands Concerns, and More
The surprise EL James book people at Penguin Random House have been whispering about was announced on Tuesday: DARKER: Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian, continues the retelling of her trilogy from Christian Grey’s point of view that began with GREY. Vintage will publish the trade paperback on Tuesday, November 2. The publisher says they will be soliciting orders from accounts over the next week, and currently have paper on order and press time reserved for a first printing of more than one million copies. James says in the announcement, “The inside of Christian Grey’s head is a fascinating place to […]
Heading Into Frankfurt, Deal Volume Rises, and Mid-Sized Fiction Bets Gain
Moving past the annual hype over “heated auctions,” it’s time for our first check-in on the actual state of dealmaking heading into the Frankfurt Book Fair, with the big final week still to come. For now, total deal volume is looking strong — particularly for adult titles, with those categories trending in line with 2014, which was busiest Frankfurt dealmaking period in years — though softer children’s and digital publisher sales are holding down the totals. A clearer trend emerges from analyzing reported transactions for six-figures or better. With 7 significant deals for fiction and 4 major deals so far, […]
Clinton and Patterson Co-Author A Novel, For Joint Publication By Little, Brown and Knopf
Knopf and Little, Brown announced jointly on Monday that they will co-publish a novel co-authored by former president Bill Clinton and James Patterson, THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING, on June 11, 2018 (six days before Father’s Day). Century will publish in the UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, and Suzanne Smith at Knopf will oversee the sale of translation rights. (Presumably Random House has the lead on publishing in Germany and Hachette has a similar lead on publishing in France; it will be interesting to see how they handle Spanish-language rights, where both companies have major groups.) Clinton and Patterson were represented by […]