Abrams has acquired Cameron + Company, a family-owned publisher based in Petaluma, CA, publishing books with a focus on photography, art, food and wine, children’s books, and topics of regional interest. Abrams has distributed the line since early 2018. Cameron + Company will be a separate division under Abrams, with vice president and publisher Chris Gruener reporting to Abrams president and ceo Michael Jacobs. The current staff will remain based in their offices in Northern California. Separately, Hardie Grant has bought out Egmont, their joint venture partner in Hardie Grant Egmont, and will rename their children’s line Hardie Grant Children’s […]
How Publishing Works
More Pub Date Delays
Every week we monitor pub date changes on our lists of notable forthcoming books (following roughly 150 books a month). Further to Friday’s piece on printing issues and a wave of pub date changes from Penguin Random House imprints in particular due to limited capacity, a few additional postponements have appeared in the metadata: Nonfiction by Wesley Morgan (Random House, now March 2021) and Milo Beckman (Dutton, now December 2020) moved, as did Victoria Thompson’s novel (Berkley, now January). We also noted at least eight pub date changes from Simon & Schuster imprints, all moving forward by just two to […]
Out of Print
The NYT explains to readers that the shortages for some in-demand books this summer (and modest adjustments in some release dates) are likely to be more severe this fall. A wave of books rescheduled early in the pandemic plus a publishing schedule that tried to release fall books ahead of the presidential election — along with urgent reprint orders for topical books — is straining the long-tight capacity for book printing. It is a problem of abundance — lots of anticipated releases and strong demand for print books — which is made worse by Covid crewing issues (including at component […]
PRH US Extends Work at Home Until “Sometime Next Year”
PRH US employees will work at home until “sometime next year,” according to an August 3 letter to staff from ceo Madeline McIntosh. Rather than provide a specific timeline, McIntosh said, “We will return when it’s safe and when it’s practical, and not before.” (Previously, in a letter in late May, the plan had been “to work in our remote status at least until after Labor Day.”) She acknowledged in the letter, “I know this news will settle in complicated ways. Even though you’re probably not surprised by the decision, it still may carry an emotional punch. We’ve all been […]
Publishers Rush to Restock Anti-Racist Books Amidst Demand Surge
The latest NYT bestseller lists, released last Wednesday, were dominated by anti-racism books and books by Black authors. That demand was widely celebrated, but so unprecedented that many booksellers were left without stock to sell. On June 12, roughly half of the anti-racist books on the NYT hardcover and paperback nonfiction bestseller lists were out of stock at both Amazon and Ingram, as were many other bestsellers by Black authors, in many cases with replenishments coming this week or next. Meanwhile, Black authors received another boost this weekend when a #Blackoutbestsellerlist campaign launched on social media. Publishers, authors, and readers […]
Summer Plans: PRH Will Work at Home at Least Through Labor Day, HBG to Reopen in Phases, and NYU Goes Online
In a May 26 letter to employees, PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh officially announced that work from home will continue at least through the summer: “For those of us who ‘usually’ work in offices, we will continue to work in our remote status at least until after Labor Day.” The company is surveying employees about their WFH technology setup: “As successful as our remote work has been, I know that some of you are under particular stress related to tech and logistics. For the time being, we’ll need to be very judicious and disciplined when considering hardware solutions to these […]