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 […]
July AAP Sales Jump Across the Board, Topped by Big Gains In Audio, Adult Fiction
The Association of American Publishers released data from participating StatShot publishers, reporting trade sales of $687 million in July, a 21.5 percent increase from 2023. That’s close to the best July ever, recorded in 2021, when sales were $705 million. And the strong AAP reports show publisher dollars running well ahead of unit sales, which were nearly flat for the first six months of the year as measured by Circana Bookscan, down 0.5%. Adult books sold $505 million, up 24 percent, led by paperbacks, which sold $177 million (compared to $150 million last year) and made up 35 percent of […]
People 10/8
Erewhon publisher Sarah Guan departed the company on October 4.
Oprah’s Book Club
Oprah Winfrey chose From Here to the Great Unknown, a memoir by Lisa Marie Presley, completed by her daughter Riley Keough, as her next book club pick.
Distribution: Six to IPG
Starting January 1, Independent Publishers Group will start distributing Siglo XXI Editores worldwide, PAPP International in the US, and Rupa Publications and Editorial Patmos in the US and Canada. On March 1, 2025, The Little Press will be distributed worldwide by IPG. Additionally, Bruna Publishing is distributed by IPG as of September 1.
Obituary: Lore Segal
Lore Segal, 96, died on October 6 in her home in Manhattan. Born in Vienna, Segal spent her childhood as a Jewish refugee in England, and later emigrated to the United States. Her first novel, Other People’s Houses, was serialized in the New Yorker before being published in 1964. Other works include Lucinella, Shakespeare’s Kitchen, and Her First American.