This week! Books!
I’m going to be going on an early summer hiatus the next few weeks, returning to a normal schedule later in June. There may be a post or two popping up in the interim, but otherwise things will be as quiet around here as a publishing house on a summer Friday afternoon.
On the news, which is not great!
In some devastating news for the publishing industry, Costco will no longer be stocking books except at peak holiday season. I’m not sure publishing civilians realize just how many book sales now happen through the big non-bookstore box stores like Costco and Target, particularly after Borders closed. Costco taking on a title often meant tens of thousands of sales. And since so many of those were impulse buys, those sales may not be coming back. Not great, Bob!!
This is compounded by the fact that, as Ken Whyte writes, shopping for books on Amazon has grown to be a truly horrendous experience with A.I.-generated fakeries everywhere.
And in further distressing news, yet another Black executive who was hired during the This Time It’s Different No We Swear era of, uh, several years ago was let go at Little Brown amid layoffs in the upper ranks due to a restructuring and, according to a spokesperson who spoke to PW, not cutting costs. Tracy Sherrod had joined Little Brown in 2020 after serving as editorial director of HarperCollins’ Amistad imprint.
So yes. Bad news week!
Two very talented artists, Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, got together to write a secret book, and Hannah Zeivan at Wired has a rather breathless article about it.
And if you’re considering an MFA, Lincoln Michel has some great advice.
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:
- Camino Ghosts by John Grisham
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
- You Like It Darker by Stephen King
- Funny Story by Emily Henry
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Adult print and e-book nonfiction:
- The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
- The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
- What This Comedian Said Will Shock You by Bill Maher
- The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson
- The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey
Young adult hardcover:
- Powerless by Lauren Roberts
- Powerful by Lauren Roberts
- The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
- Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
- Sweet Nightmare by Tracy Wolff
Middle grade hardcover:
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum by by Lisa Yee, illustrated by Dan Santat
- Odder by Katherine Applegate
- Heroes by Alan Gratz
This week on the blog
In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:
- How Emily Henry hooks the reader
- Who are your favorite publishing people to follow?
- “Eleven and up” isn’t a genre (query critique)
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, Richard Linklater is an incredible filmmaker who’s demonstrated some remarkable longevity and plays with time in super interesting ways. Needless to say, I really enjoyed his recent interview with David Marchese.
Have a great weekend!
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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