The NYT profiles Reese’s Book Club as the initiative nears its 100th pick, to be announced in September. In the club’s most powerful early days it drew some criticism and resentment from indie booksellers and others over an exclusive promotional arrangement with Audible (which ended quietly in early 2021). The very end of the NYT piece offers the news that “this month, Reese’s Book Club will unveil an exclusive audio partnership with Apple, allowing readers to find all the picks in one place on the Apple Books app.”
People 5/17
Buzz Books Fall/Winter Season Preview: Fiction
Earlier this week we launched our Buzz Books 2024: Fall/Winter sampler, with excerpts from an array of great forthcoming literary and debut fiction. If you haven’t downloaded your copy yet, the “trade edition” is available now from NetGalley and Edelweiss, or find the consumer editions all linked at our main Buzz Books website. It’s another exciting season of new books ahead. Readers will find their way to the books previewed here and others yet to be discovered. To help you sift through the many thousands of planned fall and winter titles, we’ve selected what we think are among the most […]
After a Season of Unrest, A Small Protest at the PEN Gala
The PEN America gala took place on Thursday night at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. After protests and withdrawals led to the cancellation of the PEN America Literary Awards and the PEN World Voices Festival earlier this spring, the gala convened as planned with minimal disruptions, raising over $2 million according to the AP. The organization Writers Against the War On Gaza (WAWOG) staged a small protest outside, while inside, speakers acknowledged the war and the developing situation on college campuses. Numbering “around 20” people, WAWOG’s protest consisted of several members of the organization handing out flyers […]
People 5/16
Kaustubh Kamat will join Macmillan in the newly created role of SVP, technology on May 20, reporting to COO Neil Strong.
Trade Sales Down 3.6 Percent In the First Quarter, As AAP Launches Expanded Stats
The Association of American Publishers released revamped versions of their monthly StatShot reports, with more granular data breakouts as well as an expanded pool of reporting publishers. The reports now break out sales by fiction and nonfiction, plus formats, for both adult and children’s books, more precisely reflecting the actual fluctuations within the market. (The new breakouts also apply to sales for religious presses and university presses.) Also, they are now receiving data from about 130 additional publishers (the total pool is up to 1,277 publishers) — including over 50 additional Simon & Schuster distribution clients, and about 50 additional […]