Taylor Swift breaks Little Golden Books records too (This week in books)

This week! Books!

Engine of capitalism in human form Taylor Swift does not just have a multi-billion dollar concert series under her belt, she is also the subject of the highest selling Little Golden Book in the imprint’s 81-year history, which recently surpassed one million copies sold.

Last week I obliquely referenced a YA Goodreads controversy, which I didn’t link to because I prefer to hold off until the situations have been investigated by trusted news sources. Well, here we are. YA author Cait Corrain was caught review-bombing fellow debut authors, disproportionately authors of color, and she’s now been removed from the calendar by Del Rey Books and dropped by her agency. She released an apology that cites mental health and substance challenges.

I hope all the review bombers out there who haven’t yet been caught have had a restless week. There are so many of them Goodreads had to recently change its policies, which comes over ten years after I was review-bombed after a controversial blog post, so thanks for the quick work folks.

Speaking of Amazon-owned Goodreads, Amazon announced a new feature called Your Books, which catalogues your books to fuel book recommendations. Which, uh, kind of sounds like Goodreads. Quite a vote of confidence.

One of my favorite perennial features is here: LitHub’s best book covers of 2023.

But hold on here. Zachary Petit asks are the covers we never see better than the ones that make the shelves? (Having worked in the industry, I’d give that one an unequivocal “yes”).

Three great author profiles this week: Alex Marshall on Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse, Alexandra Alter on We Need Diverse Books COO and founder of a book packager focused on diverse authors Dhonielle Clayton, and Lincoln Michel spoke with Ed Park about his idiosyncratic novel Same Bed Different Dreams.

Susan Dennard talks about what happened when she got off social media. Spoiler: It was positive.

I’ll be talking about this more next week in my year-end roundup, but Jane Friedman delves into the decisions that go into publishers closing imprints.

And speaking of Jane, after an alarmist Op-Ed that argues Spotify will do to books what it’s done to music, Jane Friedman takes issue with some of the author’s assertions.

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. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
4. The Exchange by John Grisham
5. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney
2. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
3. The Wager by David Grann
4. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
5. My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

Young adult hardcover:

1. Murtaugh by Christopher Paolini
2. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
3. Nightbane by Alex Aster
4. Powerless by Lauren Roberts
5. The Official Five Nights and Freddy’s Cookbook by Scott Cawthon and Rob Morris

Middle grade hardcover:

1. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
2. The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
3. Wings of Fire: A Guide to the Dragon World by Tui T. Sutherland
4. The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac by J.K. Rowling
5. The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro

This week on the blog

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

• So you want to write a book…
• It’s not an agent’s job to give you feedback if you’re not their client (query 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

And finally, in the wake of a Grimes-voiced AI toy called Grok and Grimes impregnator Elon Musk’s unfunny AI chatbot called Grok, petition to ban the word “grok” from the English language once and for all.

Have a great weekend!

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