Romance Writers of America filed for bankruptcy in Houston on Wednesday, citing declining membership and payment agreements with hotels to host its annual conference. According to the filing, RWA had approximately 10,000 members—whose membership fees support the organization—prior to 2019. During that time, around 2,000 members attended their annual conference. After that, membership went down to about 3,000 and continued falling. In 2018, the organization entered into contracts with Marriott hotels to host its keynote conference every year through 2026, then extended it to 2028 as the events in 2020 and 2021 were moved to virtual. In 2022, RWA attempted […]
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Tik Tok Shop Makes Its Own Bestsellers
The NYT finds Keila Shaheen’s The Shadow Work Journal — republished last month by Simon & Schuster’s Primero Sueño — one of at least a handful of homegrown TikTok Shop bestsellers. The Atlantic wrote about the book last September, when it was said to have sold 290,000 units through TikTokShop since April, “even as experts question its approach—and the author’s credentials.” Earlier this year, Shaheen reached a five-book, 50/50 profit-share deal with S&S, accompanied by a seven-figure advance, represented by Rebecca Gradinger and Albert Lee at UTA. The expanded S&S trade paperback has sold a little under 22,000 copies since […]
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Forthcoming: Coates, Gladwell, Pilkey
One World announced that it will publish Ta-Nehisi Coates’s THE MESSAGE on October 1. Chris Jackson acquired world rights from Gloria Loomis at the Watkins Loomis Agency. The book incorporates reporting from Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine, and includes personal narrative and analysis of history and literature. Jackson said in a release, “Ta-Nehisi’s best work takes readers along as intimate companions on his journeys into history, the American present, and his own probing, curious mind.” Elsewhere, Little, Brown will publish REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell on the same day, October 1, with Asya Muchnick editing. According to the […]