This week! Books!
First up, I’m taking an early fall blog break over the next few weeks and will be back posting in October. As always, I’ll still be answering emails and scheduling edits and coaching sessions, so feel free to reach out if I can be helpful.
Sophie Masson has a cool post on the history of book dedications and acknowledgments, which have a longer history than I’d realized. The more personal dedications that we know today became in vogue in the 19th century.
Doubleday Vice President & Executive Editor Thomas Gebremedhin has a thoughtful essay on what’s missing from the recent diversity in publishing discourse. He writes, “But to reduce the story to a Manichean simplicity is a double crime: it highlights an oversimplified version of the truth and intentionally ignores the experiences of those of us who remain.”
Cynthia Swanson’s debut novel was a New York Times Bestseller, but after her first editor left and the publisher for her second book folded, she’s self-publishing her third novel.
E-book distributor Draft2Digital conducted a survey on how its authors feel about A.I. In short: quite bearish, and Draft2Digital will not be licensing its library for A.I.
Publicist Kathleen Schmidt has a look at the future of book publicity, and agent Kate McKean has advice on whether you can choose comp titles that are outside of your book’s genre.
Andrea Long Chu on Sally Rooney? Yes please I will be reading that over the weekend thank you very much.
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:
- Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
- Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
- Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
- It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
Adult print and e-book nonfiction:
- Confronting the Presidents by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
- Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
- Who Could Ever Love You by Mary L. Trump
- The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
- Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson
Young adult hardcover:
- Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
- The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas
- Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
- When Haru Was Here by Dustin Thau
Middle grade hardcover:
- Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
- The Leadership Journey by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- The Sherlock Society by James Ponti
This week on the blog
In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:
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, for a look at what it means to have artistic integrity, it would be hard to do better than M.H. Miller’s profile of artist Hans Haacke.
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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I have two books on Draft2Digital, originally and still on Smashwords, and participated in that survey. Not surprised at the results. Boo to AI.
As a Black would-be writer, I wholly relate to T. Gebremedhin’s essay, “Between The Lines.” I struggle against thinking: when will this end? Yet the question persists at the back of my mind.
Now braving the query trenches, I’m not necessarily on the hunt for a Black agent, but any who fit my work. But yes, I do look for Black agents as well. In vain. Where are they to be found?