Harper’s audio sales exceed e-books (This week in books)

This week! Books!

First up, the blog will be dark the next few weeks for a summer break, but I’ll be back after Labor Day. Make sure to reach out to me in the meantime if you need editing or a consultation!

Audiobooks continue to be a major–and growing– driver of revenue for publishers, and in fact audio revenue exceeded e-books in HarperCollins’ profitable fiscal year. Harper CEO Brian Murray attributed sluggish children’s book sales to book bans making booksellers and librarians more cautious about purchasing decisions, which makes it challenging to break out new books. UGH.

Speaking of which, a new book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts–heavily associated with the Project 2025 policy agenda and featuring a leaked foreword by J.D. Vance–has, like Project 2025 itself, been disappeared until after the election.

Speaking of speaking of, “weird” is the political buzzword of the moment, but from a literary vantage point there are lots of unusual tales out there. In advance of NecronomiCon, “the international convention of weird fiction, art, and academia,” Michael Dirda revisits some weird stories.

And two great writing advice posts for you: Charlie Jane Anders was on the same wavelength as me this week and wrote about conflict and stakes, and Becca Puglisi talks about how to use setting to build characters.

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. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
2. The Women by Kristin Hannah
3. Hard to Kill by James Patterson and Mike Lupica
4. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
2. All in the Family by Fred C. Trump
3. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
4. The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
5. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Young adult hardcover:

1. The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
2. Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus
3. The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
4. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
5. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Refugee by Alan Gratz
2. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
3. Heroes by Alan Gratz
4. The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
5. Odder by Katherine Applegate

This week on the blog

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

• Conflict is just a type of obstacle
• How many books are you reading at any given time?

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Threads and Bluesky
• Follow my page on Facebook
• Join the Facebook Group
• Check out the Bransforums

And finally, the universe is an amazing place and I really enjoyed this visualization of the size of Jupiter’s 80 moons.

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.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Photo: The Huntington, San Marino, CA. Follow me on Instagram!