Publishers Weekly April 25, 2022

Tracy Sherrod and Alex Littlefield will join Little, Brown in early May. Sherrod, former v-p and editorial director at Amistad, has been named v-p and executive editor, while Littlefield, previously executive editor at Mariner Books, has been named executive editor. U.K. publishing sales rose 5% in 2021 over 2020, hitting £6.7 billion. Total book sales in the U.K. increased 7%, to £2.7 billion, while export sales rose by a modest 2%, to £3.8 billion. Trade sales were up 4%, to £2.2 billion. The Authors Guild has teamed with the book club app Fable to launch the virtual Banned Books Club. The new club is being started in response to the surge in book-banning efforts across the country. A new Kentucky law will give politicians control over local library boards in the state. The…

On April 11 and 12, the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association hosted a professional conference in Tbilisi that gathered agents, booksellers, and publishers from across the Black Sea region and the Caucasus. It included representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and Georgia. The event covered a range of topics, from the emerging role of literary agents in the region and the evolution of bookselling during the pandemic to the growth of independent publishers and challenges to freedom of speech. The conference was planned long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, but the war was a main topic of conversation. Georgia, which has had 20% of its territory occupied by Russia since a war in 2008, has played an active role in warning the world about Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions.…

A huge spike in demand for children’s books in the lead-up to Easter resulted in a 16.8% increase in unit sales of print books in the week ended Apr. 16, 2022, over the comparable week in 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Unit sales soared 64.2% in juvenile fiction and jumped 43.2% in juvenile nonfiction. With Easter week now over, unit sales were down 6.2% for the year to date from the comparable period in 2021. All subcategories in juvenile fiction saw gains in the most recent week, and sales in the category were aided by the release of Dav Pilkey’s latest Cat Kid Comic Club title, On Purpose, which sold almost 130,000 copies in its first week. In second place was It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny…

As public approval of unions surpasses its 40-year high and national headlines broadcast union victories at Starbucks and Amazon, Fight Like Hell, by journalist and union organizer Kim Kelly, due out April 26, offers lessons and inspiration for workers in any industry. “Solidarity,” Kelly said, “is always unions’ greatest weapon.” Unions have long been a part of Kelly’s life. Her father worked in construction throughout her childhood, and she remembers his union striking several times. She started her career as a music journalist and established herself as Vice’s heavy metal editor. When the youth media company’s editorial staff organized with the Writers Guild of America, East in 2015, she became a founding member of the Vice Union leadership. (Disclosure: the author of this article is a former Vice staffer who worked…

▪ Mariner Joins Stevenson’s ‘Family’ In a six-figure, two-book North American rights deal, Mariner Books’ Katherine Nintzel bought Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Mariner said the novel, acquired at a six-way auction, is a “blend of classic and modern murder mystery” that is “Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club.” Stevenson is an Australian comedian, and Nintzel brokered the agreement with Penguin Random House Australia. The book, which is set for January 2023, has also been optioned for a limited series adaptation by HBO. ▪ Ronson Takes Grand Central to ‘Infinity’ Music producer Mark Ronson sold the memoir 93 ’Til Infinty to Grand Central Publishing in a North American rights deal. Colin Dickerman acquired the book, slated for 2023, from David Kuhn and Nate…

April 27, 1970 Fifty-two years ago, the American Book Publishers Council and the American Educational Publishers Institute announced plans for the merger that created the Association of American Publishers. One goal of the merger, a bylaws clause said, was to “foster and develop a public understanding of the essential role of books in our culture and of independently created books and instructional materials in our educational institutions.” The AAP’s next annual meeting is set for May 9, 2022. For the complete article in the Publishers Weekly archive, go to publishersweekly.com/apr-27-1970.…