Today we report on dealmaking statistics for both the fourth quarter of 2023 as well as the full year — which means that most of our focus is on the annual trends. To recap: Q1 deals were weak — due in large part to the strike at Harper Collins and continued conservatism at Penguin Random House — and then sales rebounded in Q2, helped by later dates for the book fairs, with particular strength in the bigger six-figure deals. Q3 deals declined again, even as major deal reports hit record levels. Fourth quarter deals continued to paint multiple pictures. Adult […]
Deals
2023: The Year In Deals
Today we report both fourth quarter and full-year 2023 statistics for US deal reports. Dealmaking patterns were somewhat in line with sales in 2022, as most key domestic deal statistics ebbed from record levels in 2021 but still held at high levels relative to previous years. Things did soften after a strong first quarter, and then picked up a bit in the fourth quarter. In particular: – US deals finished down by 2.7 percent — like print sales as measured by Circana Bookscan, the third-best year in recent charting, and well ahead of 2020 and earlier years. – Adult Fiction continued its […]
Publishers Make Record Bets on Fiction Heading Into Frankfurt
The trends we noted in our recent analysis of third quarter deal reports — fewer overall reports, growing totals for adult fiction, but record numbers of “major” deals — come into concentrated relief as we narrow down into the traditional “pre-Frankfurt” dealmaking window in particular. Since 2021, the Frankfurt Book Fair has fallen a week later than usual, yet again our counts include one extra day of deal reports — but that makes for even comps to 2022 and 2021. For many years, FBF would come five weeks after Labor Day, so our count usually covers five weeks plus one […]
Third Quarter Deals Ebb Overall, Gain At the Highest Level
Consumer book sales have continued to fall versus last year and the big pandemic highs, but are still running at their third-best level in years. (Circana Bookscan has YTD units at 527 million, down about 4 percent from 549 million units a year ago.) Meanwhile, investment by publishers in future product both aligns with and diverges from the consumer sales trend. As a reminder, Q1 deals were weak — due in large part to the strike at Harper Collins and continued conservatism at Penguin Random House — and then rebounded in Q2, helped by later dates for the book fairs, […]
Paul Reubens Said to Leave Behind Memoir Manuscript
The late Paul Reubens’ publicist Kelly Bush Novak told WIAT CBS 42 in Alabama that the actor had “finished a first draft” of a memoir about his life and career before he died of cancer on Monday. “We are hoping it will be published posthumously,” Novack told the station.
Dealmaking Rebounded In the Second Quarter
The year opened with a weak first quarter of dealmaking, following two record years, but the market appeared to have been held back by the strike at Harper Collins, along with later dates for the spring book fairs. Now, we can see with more clarity that deal reports rose modestly in the second quarter, up 2.7 percent overall. The main weakness was in children’s books, which has looked overbought for a while. Indeed, children’s sales fell 9.8 percent, back to their level from 2020. Adult fiction continued its strong run — matched by consumer sales — rising 7.1 percent in […]