Biden’s memoir sells for $10 million (This week in books)

This week! Books!

Yesterday, I moderated the panel “From Ideas to Shelves” at Comic-Con in San Diego, which included professionals across books, film, and TV. Fascinating discussion!

After the film/TV world took a beating with the Hollywood strike and collapse of the streaming golden era, and after Los Angeles took a beating earlier this year with the fires, there are hopeful green shoots.

One thing I was struck by was the extent to which the film/TV folks flat out don’t care if a book was traditionally published or self-published. What they care about is whether the book is connecting with readers, full stop. This means fan engagement and platform for fiction are big. If you’re hoping for a book to film deal, your social media presence really does matter.

I was pretty focused on panel prep this week, but I still grabbed a few links for you…

Biden Sells Memoir for Roughly $10 Million, Less Than Obama and Clinton – Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal – Little, Brown at Hachette will publish Joe Biden’s memoir.

After almost 20 years, Goodreads has a new logo fit for Booktok – Grace Snelling, Fast Company – Oh hey look Amazon finally changed something with Goodreads.

Honest Answers to the Questions New Clients Ask on the First Call – Kate McKean, Agents and Books – I love this straight talk from agent Kate McKean about what she can and can’t tell authors when she’s offering representation.

The Democratization of Editorial Feedback? – Lauren & Aaron, Move 37 – Very interesting speculative look at what even “just okay” A.I. editorial feedback could affect in the submission process for books.

The Revolution Will Not Be Star Wars – Gabriel Winslow-Yost, The New York Review of Books – Gabriel liked Andor as much as I did, but he astutely catalogues the edges sanded off of the storytelling as a lens into the limitations of corporate storytelling. One of the best essays I’ve read in a while.

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. An Inside Job by Daniel Silva
2. The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
3. Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir
4. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
5. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. The Idaho Four by James Patterson and Vicky Ward
2. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
3. The Mission by Tim Weiner
4. JFK by J. Randy Taraborrelli
5. Butler by Salena Zito

Young adult hardcover:

1. Hour of the Pumpkin Queen by Megan Shepherd
2. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
3. Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw
4. Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter
5. Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
4. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
5. Snoop by Gordon Korman

This week on the blog

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

• Where to start Chapter 1 in a novel

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Bluesky
• Check out the Bransforums

And finally:

Coldplaygate Is a Reminder That There’s No Escaping Going Viral – Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker – It’s all fun and games until you become the Internet’s main character.

Have a great weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

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