Publishers Weekly April 11, 2022

Tracy Sherrod, v-p and editorial director of Amistad, will leave the HarperCollins imprint after nearly a decade to “pursue a new endeavor.” Sherrod’s last day is April 11, and a search for a successor has begun. A PEN America report found that 1,586 book bans and restrictions in 86 school districts across 26 states took place between July 1, 2021, and Mar. 31, 2022. Follett School Solutions scrapped plans for a potential parental control module for its Destiny Library Manager software program after the idea drew harsh criticism. Gayatri Patnaik has been appointed the next director of nonprofit publisher Beacon Press, effective July 30. She will succeed Helene Atwan, who announced her plans to retire earlier this year. Paul Kelly and Rebecca Smart will take over as co-CEOs of DK worldwide June 1, when…

The Week Ahead London Book Fair attendees, back in person for the first time in three years, had a lot to discuss—especially, senior writer Andrew Albanese explains, when it came to the war in Ukraine. publishersweekly.com/london22 More to Come This week, senior news editor Calvin Reid interviews exhibitors at the MoCCA Art Fest, an annual festival of indie comics and graphic novel publishing. publishersweekly.com/mocca22 Children’s Bookshelf Award-winning children’s book author Patricia MacLachlan, widely lauded for her spare, realistic stories about everyday family life, died on March 31 at 84. publishersweekly.com/maclachlan…

Unit sales of print books fell 8.9% in the first quarter, which ended April 2, from the same period in 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The decline was expected, as firstquarter sales in 2021 soared 29.2% over the first period in 2020. Unit sales were 183.9 million in the most recent quarter, down from 201.9 million a year ago, but they were still up about 16% over the first quarter of 2020, when sales began to soften due to pandemic-related lockdowns. The only category to post a meaningful increase in the quarter was adult fiction. Colleen Hoover and fellow Book-Tok favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid were the big winners. Hoover’s It Ends with Us sold more than 400,000 copies in the first quarter, making it #1 on the category…

Publishers waited three years to reconvene at the London Book Fair, and the level of enthusiasm for a near-normal book fair was high among those who attended. On opening day, lines formed outside the venue for the obligatory Covid vaccination checks, and throughout the event the largely mask-free crowd had to find a way to navigate the new layout, as the fair was held in the still-underrenovation Olympia hall. Though the presence of the large American publishers was mostly limited to small groups or U.K. employees, British publishers crowded the floor, and numerous international stands—ranging from the United Arab Emirates to Indonesia to Turkey—took up even more prominent positions. Though the fair had not released official attendance numbers as of press time, attendance was notably sparser than in years past, especially…

The publishing industry faces continuing supply chain issues and paper shortages, while another set of challenges has appeared in early 2022, in the form of employee resignations and work-life balance issues. These topics were the focus of the webinar “Publishing Now ’22: Driving Business Forward,” presented by PW with support from Westchester Publishing Services on March 22. After two years in which book sales did surprisingly well despite problems posed by the pandemic, the industry faces more uncertainties in 2022 because of inflation and rising costs that are eating into companies’ operating margins, said Jim Milliot, editorial director of PW, who acted as panel moderator: “It’s safe to say things are a little more complicated.” Jim Fetherston, president and CEO at the printer Worzalla, was quick to point to the root cause…

In early 2020, we were holding our breath—we didn’t know what to expect,” said Andrews McMeel Publishing president and publisher Kirsty Melville. “It turned out to be a very good year, and 2021 just continued that momentum.” Sales last year were up 25% from 2019, she added. AMP, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, is best known as the publisher of the bestselling Doonesbury, Calvin and Hobbes, and Far Side comics strip compilations, and it remains preeminent in the comics and humor category. But Melville noted that sales are spiking in the poetry and children’s categories as well, both of which the company entered approximately 10 years ago. Poetry sales rose 10% since the start of the pandemic, Melville said. “That speaks to the times. Our poetry is part self-care, part reflection,…