A soft fourth quarter for overall deals (-3.2 percent overall) had only modest effect on what was a record-setting year for PM reports overall in 2024–even with continued weakness in the children’s market. Overall deals were higher than ever, as adult deals set new records by a large margin. And publisher investment, in terms of reported six-figure deals as well as in major and significant deals in particular, well exceeded previous records. In particular: – US deals overall were up 3.5 percent, just beating the previous record set in 2021 when pandemic retail sales also set new records. – Adult Fiction continued […]
Deals
2024: The Year In Deals
A soft fourth quarter for overall deals (-3.2 percent overall) had only modest effect on what was a record-setting year for PM reports overall in 2024–even with continued weakness in the children’s market. Overall deals were higher than ever, as adult deals set new records by a large margin. And publisher investment, in terms of reported six-figure deals as well as in major and significant deals in particular, well exceeded previous records. In particular: – US deals overall were up 3.5 percent, just beating the previous record set in 2021 when pandemic retail sales also set new records. – Adult Fiction continued […]
YA Authors Cross Over With “Adult Debuts”
One of the biggest acquisitions of 2024 was a seven-figure, three-book deal for YA author Adalyn Grace’s THE WRETCHED DIVINE by Feiwel and Friends. Grace’s book highlights a growing trend of authors who historically published in the children’s/YA market selling their first books marketed for adults. While many authors, such as Jacqueline Woodson and Victoria/VE Schwab, have long published books for kids and adults, PM deal reports show that there’s a marked uptick in what editors and agents are calling “adult debuts.” So far this year, PM has recorded at least 30 such acquisitions, almost a quarter of which were […]
Record Fall/Frankfurt Adult Deals Follow Big Third Quarter
Yes, your fall and pre-Frankfurt deal submissions really have been even more overwhelming than usual this year. As we noted yesterday, US publishers were strong buyers in the third quarter of the year and that continued in October, as we saw new records for overall deals during this key five-week-plus selling stretch, lifted by adult books in particular. (As a reminder, we measure the five weeks and a day leading up to the Wednesday opening of FBF. Usually that begins with Labor Day, though last year and this year Frankfurt is a week later than usual.) US deals were up […]
Third Quarter Deals Set More New Records
Tomorrow we’ll provide the full report on deal activity in the fall/pre-Frankfurt sales period — Spoiler Alert: It has been a record season. But first we need to catch up on deal trends for the third quarter, which has also set multiple records. The visualizations below will make it more obvious than usual, but: – Overall deals reached a new high for the period, up 8.7 percent over last year – Nonfiction deals recovered, reaching a new high for the period, up 22.5 percent over last year – Fiction deals continued their growth and accelerated, reaching a new high again, […]
Fall Debuts and Frankfurt Unicorns
The big fall selling (and announcement) season, starting right after Labor Day and running through the Frankfurt Book Fair some time in October, seems to get busier every year. Our US deal reports for September were up 8 percent over September 2023, with fiction deals running 25 percent ahead of a year ago, as debut fiction reports set a record for the month (up 60 percent from last year). Other media and popular imagination stills tries to coalesce in October around a few “books of the fair,” even though we document over 800 “pre-Frankfurt” deals — with over 10 percent […]