International Literary Properties (ILP) announced the acquisition of three more literary estates, in whole or in part: A majority interest in the literary estate of New Zealand crime novelist Dame Ngaio Marsh; a majority interest in the literary estate of American true crime author Ann Rule; and full ownership of the literary works of British author Angela Thirkell. CEO of ILP UK and Europe Hilary Strong said in the release: “I have been lucky enough to work closely with a number of crime estates, amongst them Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh is undoubtedly one of the masters […]
Deals
First Quarter Deals: Sales Remain At Record Levels, Even As Six-Figure Deals Soften
Following a record year in 2021 for US deal transactions as measured through our PM deal reports, it’s time for an update on deal trends from the first quarter of 2022. To recap the baseline, 2021 saw a surge in dealmaking in the first and second quarters, followed by a modest pullback in the third quarter and a finish to the year that was slightly ahead of the first pandemic uptick from late 2020. In the end, US deals were up 9.4 percent overall, and six-figure deals grew even more, up over 21 percent. Those results aligned with industry stats: […]
Newsletter Touts Book Material for Development
Former THR books editor Andy Lewis is writing a weekly column for start-up The Ankler that touts some forthcoming releases still available for film/TV options. Called the Optionist, he writes, “Every Friday, I’ll present un-optioned material from books, magazines, news articles, podcasts, games and graphic novels that I think deserve a look. I will attempt to go beyond hot titles on current lists from your book scouts, and pick out the hidden gems.”
2021: The Year In Deals, and the Stats Behind the Boom
Overall Stats As we documented during the year, deal activity boomed in the first two quarters of 2021: US deal reports were up about 19 percent overall, and six-figure deals rose even more. In the second half of the year, dealmaking remained steady with a strong period from 2020, with the biggest “major” deals jumping at year-end. By year end, total deals rose more in 2021 than in 2020, and six-figure deals or better were particularly strong. At the same time, translation deals came roaring back after falling in 2020. Specifically: – US deals were up 9.4 percent overall, even more than […]
Fourth Quarter Deals
Bringing one of our important new projects full cycle, here is our recap of deal statistics for the fourth quarter of 2021. As indicated in our three previous reports, US dealmaking continued to align roughly with consumer book sales, up a little bit in the fourth quarter after a softer third quarter and a robust first half of the year. Nonfiction and fiction deals both declined slightly compared to a big quarter in 2020, but remained near high points for the past five years, as children’s deals continued their uninterrupted growth — putting total deals for the quarter up 1 […]
Getting Gurnah
The NYT reiterates what we reported the day Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature: From his extensive backlist, only one title was active in the marketplace in print, PARADISE. On October 7, Ingram had about 300 copies available. Working with Ingram’s print-on-demand service, The New Press has been able to make more copies available quickly: NPD Bookscan shows sales to consumers of approximately 600 copies the week ending October 9, and just over 9oo copies the week ending October 16. (Update: It sold another 1,150 copies the week ending October 23.) The publisher tells the NYT they will […]