RIP Mike Shatzkin (This week in books)

What a week.

We lost a really wonderful person this week as my favorite publishing sage Mike Shatzkin passed away yesterday at the age of 77. Mike knew more about the industry and publishing history than just about anyone (along with Robert Riger, he literally wrote the book about it), and he was incredibly generous with both his time and his infectious spirit. I always loved chatting with him about where the future was headed, and appreciated and admired his prescience. In addition to publishing, he was also passionate about building coalitions to combat climate change. Just a really great person, and I’ll miss him a lot. Here’s a post from Michael Cader on his legacy as well as Jim Milliot and Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly.

One of my favorite collaborations with Mike was a post on what would happen if Barnes & Noble went bankrupt (which, to be clear, was more of a hypothetical doomsday conversation than something that seemed likely), so it was interesting to see what’s currently going on with Barnes & Noble: they’re opening up 60 new stores this year, including one that columnist Ron Charles visited in D.C.

If you’re a BIPOC illustrator (or know one!) heads up about a great mentorship opportunity with design professionals at Scholastic. Applications are due on December 1.

So… blech. We’ll have a new president in a few months in the United States, and James Folta at LitHub has a post on how disastrous Project 2025 could be for books if even part of it is implemented, including a wish to characterize all LGBTQ+ content as pornography undeserving of First Amendment protection. Many children’s book authors in particular fear that publishers don’t really have their backs, which was reflected in the immediate backlash when a VP of Marketing at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group posted a pro-Trump Facebook post after the election.

Agent DongWon Song takes on the old saw “At least they’ll make great art of this” for the fiction that it is, (“you don’t need suffering to make great art”), and advises to find joy where you can while keeping your eyes open.

In other “get me off this branch of the timeline” news, a Dutch publisher owned by Simon & Schuster plans to experiment with using A.I. for English language translations, and in the U.K., the amount of time children spend reading for pleasure has declined precipitously.

And I always enjoy writing posts from agent and author Donald Maass. This week he asks: in a time when people have gotten pretty sick of superhero movies and the pervasive lesson that violence is the answer, what is to become of heroes and heroines?

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. The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
2. In Too Deep by Lee Child and Andrew Child
3. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
4. The Waiting by Michael Connelly
5. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Melania by Melania Trump
2. Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey
3. War by Bob Woodward
4. Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
5. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Young adult hardcover:

1. Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter
2. Lightlark by Alex Aster
3. Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews
4. Murtagh by Christopher Paolini
5. The Glass Girl by Kathleen Glasgow

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
2. The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon
3. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
4. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
5. Priceless Facts About Money by Mellody Hobson

This week on the blog

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

• Shy, depressed, grieving, and adrift characters still need to be active
• How are we feeling out there? (thanks for all the great comments on this post!)

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 guy behind the Twitter account Art But Make it Sports comes up with some incredibly serendipitous combinations, and I enjoyed this look behind the scenes at his process.

Have a great weekend!

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