Amanda Gorman’s books poised for 3 million first printing (This week in books)

This week! Books!

I was a bit unplugged from the news and social media this week, but I still saw a few links to share with you.

Amanda Gorman’s stunning poem The Hill We Climb is one of her three upcoming books that will be released in 2021, and Penguin Random House is planning on first printings of one million for each one.

The NY Times has a fascinating profile of Michelle Burford, who has written 10 books over the last 8 years with celebrities, including 5 bestsellers. Just don’t call her a ghostwriter.

Michael Cader at Publishers Lunch has a very interesting breakdown of the good and bad of 2020 book sales ($ link). Some of the conclusions: overall book sales are strong driven by children’s books and backlist titles, but it keeps getting harder to break out new titles.

Agent Kate McKean breaks down what to do if you receive an offer from a publisher before you get an agent.

You often hear that there are too many books out there. Well, it turns out these complaints are as old as the printing press itself (link via LitHub).

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
2. Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner
3. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
4. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
5. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. A Promised Land by Barack Obama
2. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
3. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
4. Untamed by Glennon Doyle
5. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Young adult hardcover:

1. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
2. Lore by Alexandra Bracken
3. Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
4. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
5. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Middle grade hardcover:

1. The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling
2. Little Leaders by Vashti Harrison
3. Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure by Jeff Kinney
4. This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
5. The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• Get in tune with your writing goals
• Demonstrate emotions to show a character’s personality (page critique)

Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:

• Nominate Your First Page for a Critique on the Blog
• Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Twitter
• Follow my page on Facebook
• Join the Facebook Group
• Check out the Bransforums

Comment! of! the! week! goes to Ken Hughes, who has some good follow-up advice on showing not telling a character’s emotion:

So true, emotions are the classic need to be Shown rather than Told. Especially, the name of an emotion is an instant red flag: any character who’s thinking “scared” or “happy” sounds too removed from the emotion to actually feel it.

One subtler trick I love about showing emotions, is to use exactly *what* a person notices in that moment and what they ignore. Think of a documentary camera zeroing in on one part of the picture — that choice tells so much about the director’s “viewpoint” (a useful word in itself). “The bartender sees the crowd, the decorator sees the barstools, and the Marine is counting the exits.” Here, would the character be watching the exact gestures of the Watcher that are the first clues how much food is coming? glancing at the family and using those to prompt “he worked so hard” or “can we feed them all”? Those would ground the information, and bring out the razor-edged moment of being just about to hear if they’ll starve.

And finally, prior to the pandemic a lot of people were embracing periodic numbness and isolation as an antidote to digital life, but the pandemic has brought a new kind of nothingness. Kyle Chayka has a fascinating article on the phenomenon of numbness during the pandemic.

Have a great weekend!

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