Publishers Weekly

the week in publishing

Blake Bailey’s Philip Roth: The Biography, as well as Bailey’s memoir The Splendid Things We Planned, have been taken out of print by Norton, following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct leveled at the author. Bailey has denied all accusations. Lagardère, the parent company of Hachette Book Group, settled a long-running fight over its management structure, agreeing to move to a more conventional joint-stock company. Company leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the publishing business. First quarter sales at Lagardère Publishing rose 11.6%, to €509 million; sales at HBG increased 9.1%. Penguin Random House hopes to expand staff access to its offices in September, but in an email to employees, CEO Madeline McIntosh said that, though it will provide offices to employees who want or need them, PRH’s “guiding principle [is] that we…

the ipc comes of age

The idea for the Independent Publishers Caucus first surfaced in 2016 at the ABA Winter Institute, but the important role the organization would play in the business lives of its members wasn’t fully apparent until March 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, which posed unprecedented challenges for publishers, and the appointment of Anna Thorn as IPC executive director. In a Zoom interview last week, several members of the IPC steering committee said Thorn’s ability to create new programs to help guide members through the Covid-19 crisis was a pivotal point in the organization’s evolution. Early on after the lockdowns began, the IPC began hosting biweekly town halls, which regularly attracted 30–40 publishers. Those meetings were critical in helping Europa Editions navigate the pandemic, according to editor-in-chief Michael Reynolds. They served…

print unit sales surge in late april

Unit sales of print books rose 24.3% in the week ended Apr. 24, 2021, over the comparable week in 2020, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. At this time last year, sales were beginning to recover from declines early in the pandemic and were almost flat with the comparable week in 2019. In the most recent week, adult nonfiction unit sales jumped 44.3% over sales in the category during the week ended Apr. 25, 2020, as five of the top 10 adult nonfiction bestsellers were new releases. World Traveler by the late Anthony Bourdain and his longtime collaborator Laurie Woolever took the top spot in the category, selling more than 50,000 copies. George W. Bush’s Out of Many, One was in the fourth place, selling almost 28,000 copies, followed…

biblioasis launches bookseller series

On April 24, Independent Bookstore Day, Ontario-based publisher and independent bookstore Biblioasis did a soft launch for a new chapbook, but it’s not aimed at the typical bookstore customer. Instead, Josh Cook’s The Least We Can Do: White Supremacy, Free Speech, and Independent Bookstores is the first in a series intended to spark discussion and debate among booksellers about important issues in the trade. The idea for the bookseller-authored series came about last winter, when Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells read an essay by Cook, a veteran bookseller at Porter Square Books, PW’s 2020 Bookstore of the Year, in Cambridge, Mass. “In the pandemic, we were thinking about ways to become more responsive and responsible publishers,” Wells said. “We hit on the idea of returning to the pamphlet and trying to modernize…

celebrating independent bookstore day

Independent Bookstore Day took place Saturday, April 24, with 749 stores participating, covering all 50 states. The celebration, which is organized by the American Booksellers Association, is a successful marketing campaign for indie stores; this year there were more than 400,000 tweets and nearly 15,000 Instagram posts referencing @BookstoreDay and #Indie-BookstoreDay throughout April. Almost 40,000 IBD-exclusive items were ordered and distributed by Ingram. Libro.fm offered a free digital audiobook to anyone who spent more than $15 on the day and tracked sales accordingly. Based on its receipts, Libro.fm said more than $260,000 was spent at stores on print books or other merchandise (in-store and online) by a total of 5,300 customers. The ABA’s IndieCommerce platform saw almost 128,000 visitors on the day, up from almost 95,000 last year (when IBD…

deals

DEAL OF THE WEEK McManus Re-ups at Delacorte In a seven-figure deal, Delacorte Press’s Krista Marino bought North American rights to two YA thrillers by Karen M. McManus. One will be the final entry in the trilogy launched by McManus’s bestseller One of Us Is Lying. The second book in the deal is a standalone thriller. The titles are slated for summer 2023 and summer 2024, respectively. McManus was represented by Rosemary Stimola and Allison Remcheck at Stimola Literary Studio. Knopf Falls Under Adebayo’s ‘Spell’ Ayobami Adebayo sold A Spell of Good Things to Knopf, which also published her lauded 2017 debut, Stay with Me. Jennifer Jackson acquired North American rights to the title from Kathy Robbins at the Robbins Office. The book follows Eniola, a tailor’s apprentice in Nigeria, and Wuraola,…