Publishers Weekly May 9, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Roland Daniel Zimany has been preaching and has been in the pastoral ministry since 1997. He served as interim pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1997 and as minister of Luther Memorial Church in Des Moines, Iowa in 1998 to 2003. Presently, he serves as pulpit supply minister at Deerfield Retirement Community and in other churches in the state of Iowa. Pastor Zimany is a native of Irvington, New Jersey of Slovak heritage. In 1956, he went to pursue an education at Princeton University, earning the degree in Public and International Affairs, which later led him to work in business and government in the New York metropolitan area for fourteen years, mostly as a management analyst and as an interviewer. The year 1970 has always…

Let’s Take a Sneak Peek of the Book! Before considering the important part of the sermon, let’s take a look at today’s Gospel lesson and ask, what’s wrong with this picture? What takes place in our Gospel story that does not reflect the way things usually happen in the world? If were teaching a class, I would now stop talking, and there would be a long period of silence, while you look through the biblical text on your bulletin insert, to try to find something unusual. But to ensure that this sermon ends before it’s time for Sunday School to begin, I’ll save some time by pointing out that it is highly unusual for two pregnant women to meet and for one to say to the other, “You’re going to be the mother…

Anthony Goff, who stepped down as senior v-p and publisher of Hachette Audio in February, was named president of Blackstone Publishing, the Oregon publisher of audiobooks, print books, and e-books. He reports to CEO Josh Stanton. Susan Bolotin retired May 1, after nearly 22 years as editorial director and publisher of Workman, the flagship imprint of Workman Publishing. HarperCollins sales increased 5% in the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2022, to $515 million, but profits fell 16% from a year ago, to $67 million. The profit decline was attributed to higher manufacturing and freight costs, as well as ongoing supply chain and inflationary pressures. Matt Hurley, a sales rep for Publishers Weekly from 1989 to 2011, died on April 22. He was 64. Hurley first joined PW as Midwest sales manager, and his responsibilities…

The Week Ahead Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp said that refinements made to its metadata has improved sell-through, boosting the bottom line. Senior writer Andrew Albanese unpacks the publisher’s big quarter. publishersweekly.com/s&s-sales More to Come Senior news editor Calvin Reid interviews New Yorker cartoonist Sofia Warren about her new work of graphic nonfiction, Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator (Top Shelf), the story of Julia Salazar, the young Latina democratic socialist and grassroots activist elected to the New York State Senate from Brooklyn in 2018. publishersweekly.com/radical Children’s Bookshelf Baker & Taylor has announced the launch of a publishing program, Paw Prints Publishing, which will publish original book content for children ages three to eight for the library and trade markets. publishersweekly.com/paw-prints…

Don Weisberg, who joined Macmillan in January 2016 as president of Macmillan Publishers US and was promoted to CEO of Macmillan Publishers’ worldwide trade operations following the departure of John Sargent in 2021, will leave the company at the end of the year. Jon Yaged has been named Weisberg’s successor as CEO of Macmillan Publishers US. When Weisberg exits the publisher at the end of 2022, Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of Macmillan’s parent company, the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, will oversee Macmillan’s English-language trade business outside of the U.S. Joanna Prior, CEO of Pan Macmillan UK, and Ross Gibb, managing director of Pan Macmillan ANZ, will report directly to von Holtzbrinck. Weisberg will move into an advisory role to Stefan von Holtzbrinck in January. “This is the perfect time for a handoff,” Weisberg…

With all categories except adult fiction posting declines, unit sales of print books fell 6.1% in the week ended Apr. 30, 2022, from the comparable week in 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Sales of adult nonfiction fell 7.8% despite a good debut by Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis, which was the #1 seller overall last week, selling nearly 62,000 copies. Sales in some of adult nonfiction’s biggest segments, however, had big declines, including reference, where units dropped 18.7%, and general nonfiction, which had a 17.3% decline. Adult fiction was the bright spot in the week, albeit with an increase of only 1.4% over the week ended May 1, 2021. It was another good week for Colleen Hoover, who had the #1 title in the category…