Simon & Schuster is now handling world print sales for Big City Press.
January Picks
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Big Final Full Holiday Week Helps Book Sales
After four straight weeks of declining year-over-year book sales, the final full holiday week of sales, for the week ending December 21, was very strong, according to Circana Bookscan. Sales of 33.34 million units were up 4.6 percent over the comparable week from 2023, when consumers bought 31.88 million units — making it the best holiday week of print sales recorded by Bookscan over the past five years. That late surge in book sales also suggests that the final sales week of the year, which will include two more days of holiday sales, could be strong on a comparison basis […]
DOE Allows Digital Textbook “Inclusive Access” Programs to Remain Opt-Out
The US Department of Education has terminated a rulemaking process that would have converted “inclusive access” programs, in which colleges charge students for digital course materials at the beginning of the semester as part of their tuition and other fees, from opt-out to opt-in. That change, if executed, would have significantly reduced participation, and therefore sales. Inclusive access purports to give students the best price for the bundled courseware, along with some kind of ability to opt out of the package. In a report published December 26, the DOE wrote, “We are persuaded by concerns raised…about the need to gather […]
Publishers Will Print Still More Deluxe Editions in 2025
Publishers will keep producing more deluxe hardcover editions in 2025 with patterned edges, fancy covers, special endpapers and more. For Rebecca Yarros’s ONYX STORM, publishing January 21, Entangled is producing 2 million copies of the deluxe edition and 500,000 copies of the regular version. The publisher tells the NYT they have over one million pre-orders already. Penguin Random House says it plans at least 50 books with decorated edges in 2025, twice as many as they produced in 2024. William Morrow expects to print over 35 deluxe editions, up from 13; and Tor plans at least 45 special productions, up […]