Publishers Weekly May 16, 2022

Association of American Publishers chair Michael Pietsch said at the AAP annual meeting that publishing is dealing with “the biggest set of simultaneous challenges our industry has faced in a generation,” including “outrageous book bans” and “unrelenting” efforts to weaken copyright. The American Library Association announced that more than 25 major organizations, including a host of publishers and author and bookseller groups, have joined its Unite Against Book Bans campaign, an effort to help communities defend the freedom to read. A federal court quickly and succinctly denied a preliminary injunction against Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren in a First Amendment suit filed last year by authors Joseph Mercola, Ronnie Cummins, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and their publisher Chelsea Green. The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes for Letters were announced May 9. Recipients include novelist Joshua Cohen…

The three major trade publishers that reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31 posted sales gains over the same period in 2021, but had generally muted expectations for the remainder of the year. HarperCollins, the nation’s second-largest trade publisher, posted a 5% sales increase over the first quarter of 2021, but earnings fell 16%. Executives at HC parent company News Corp said the profit decline was driven by higher manufacturing and freight costs as well as ongoing supply chain and inflationary pressures. And while sales rose to $515 million, the company acknowledged the increase was due almost entirely to last spring’s acquisition of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade group, which added $35 million in the period. The contribution from HMH was offset by a $14 million decline in sales…

Unit sales of print books fell 6.9% in the week ended May 7, 2022, from the comparable week in 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Sales were down in all major categories, including adult fiction, which is the only category with yearto-date sales gains. No major bloch buster drove sales up a year ago, leading to tough comparisons. In fact, the #1 bestseller in the week ended May 8, 2021, was 21st Birthday by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, which sold about 51,000 copies. The top seller in the most recent week was Book Lovers by Emily Henry, which sold more than 67,000 copies. 22 Seconds by Patterson and Paetro came in second place in the most recent week, selling almost 46,000 copies. Bill O’Reilly also had new…

It has been 25 years since the original publication of Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money—That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, a book that was originally self-published in 1997 through author Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Technologies. Since its release, the book has remained a bestseller, having sold upward of 44 million copies. Beyond the sales success of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Kiyosaki has always viewed the book as part of a bigger mission—one that began when he was nine years old. “Why don’t we teach kids about money?” he mused. Kiyosaki grew up in Hawaii, and his father served as the state’s secretary of education and had a doctorate but made only a modest salary. “I grew up in this kind of poor, lower-middle-class…

In a former sewing machine store, next to a restored art deco theater, Sacramento, Calif.’s Capital Books got its start in April 2019. Capital Books fills a niche in Sacramento’s historic downtown: Levinson’s Books, a landmark from 1929 to 1994, occupied the space on the other side of the Crest Theater. “This building has been a lot of things: an art gallery, a beauty supply store, a candy store,” said Ross Rojek, who owns Capital Books with his wife, Heidi Rojek. The Rojeks met while working in Silicon Valley. Together for 14 years and married for seven, they started the Sacramento Book Review and developed apps prior to opening Capital Books. “I’ve always been in the book industry, at least tangentially,” said Ross, who operates GoLocalApps in addition to running the…

Knopf Surrenders to Bono In a world rights agreement inked seven years ago but only recently announced, Knopf’s late editor-in-chief Sonny Mehta acquired Surrender by Bono. The memoir is set for November, when it will also be released simultaneously in 15 territories outside the U.S. In it, the publisher said, the U2 lead singer reveals his “remarkable life and those he has shared it with.” Bono, born Paul David Hewson, takes readers “from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was 14, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his more than 20 years of activism.” Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown brokered the deal on behalf of Bono. Happy Days for Winkler at Celadon Celadon’s…