10:54am update: I wrote this post before the news broke. My hearts are with everyone distressed and directly impacted by the recent Supreme Court rulings. I’m going to keep this post up in case people need a respite, but please interpret the tone accordingly.
This week! Books!
First up, our nation’s birthday and its attendant holiday is approaching, and I’m going to take a few weeks off from blogging until everyone is back and ensconced in front of their air conditioners on July 11. I’ll be answering in emails in the meantime, so feel free to reach out for editing/coaching, and don’t forget to check out my new classes.
Can the publishing industry finally become more diverse? For real this time? Marcela Valdes has a great deep dive into publisher Lisa Lucas’s first year at Pantheon, as well as an illuminating look at past waves of efforts at diversifying that broadly fizzled out and a long history of the industry believing that books by/featuring people of color “don’t sell” despite every evidence to the contrary. Lucas was a very rare outside hire in a business that has long prized grinding your way up from assistant to executive. (It’s also a publishing industry tell that previously directing the National freaking Book Awards, as Lucas did, counts as an “outside hire”).
This is one way the industry is hopefully changing, but what else? Publishing industry sage Mike Shatzkin takes a look at the past few decades and illustrates how the industry has evolved from a personal network and bookstore-centric ecosystem to one that depends much more on nimble marketing and speed. While in many ways it’s a much more decentralized landscape, traditional publishers remain major players due to their control of their backlists (which they’re learning to exploit in ever-more-effective ways), and nearly every player in the business (including Amazon) relies on wholesaler Ingram in some form.
Pursuing copyright claims when your work is infringed has historically been a complicated and expensive endeavor, but the federal Copyright Claims Board has launched, sort of a small claims court for copyright violations. Victoria Strauss looks at what it means for authors.
The New York Times Style Magazine has a terrific feature on the top 25 New York City novels, along with some fascinating discussions and unreal vintage photos.
In final New York City news, the New York Public Library is giving away 500,000 books this summer.
And in writing advice news, Cheryl Rainfield talks about how to avoid stereotypes for characters with mental health issues.
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:
- The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
- It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
- Verity by Colleen Hoover
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- Sparring Partners by John Grisham
Adult print and e-book nonfiction:
- Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth with David Goodwin
- I’d Like to Play Alone Please by Tom Segura
- James Patterson by James Patterson
- Killing the Killers by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Young adult hardcover:
- Family of Liars by E. Lockhart
- One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
- Loveless by Alice Oseman
- I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
- Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Middle grade hardcover:
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- Search for Treasure by Mary Alice Monroe with Angela May
- Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman
- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuer
This week on the blog
In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:
Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:
And keep up with the discussion in all the places!
And finally, I haven’t watched baseball in the last few years so I must confess I didn’t know who Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes is, but I really, really enjoyed Will Sammon’s look at Burnes’s approach to journaling, which seems like something that could be applied to the creative process too.
Have a great weekend! See you in July.
Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!
For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.
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Photo: Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Follow me on Instagram!
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