Major agency resigns from AALA over ethics changes (This week in books)

This week! Books!

As Supply Chain Problems Increase, Some Books Miss On-Sale Dates – Katy Hershberger, Publishers Lunch – Tariffs, higher fuel prices, and the closure of a major printing facility in New York is throwing publishing calendars out of whack. Easy to forget publishers are logistical marvels (most of the time) as much as they’re literary gatekeepers.

AALA Resignation Statement – Dystel, Goderich & Bourret – In the wake of canon of ethics changes by the American Association of Literary Agents (AALA) that blur the lines around the services agents can charge authors for, major literary agency Dystel, Goderich & Bourret announced that they are withdrawing from the organization.

Literature Is Becoming More Like a Video Game (gift link) – Sophia Nguyen, The Atlantic – Sophia Nguyen profiles the rise of LitRPG, and especially the wildly popular Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.

Librarians on Libraries (gift link) – Elisabeth Egan and John Maher, New York Times – Quotes from librarians around the country, who could scarcely have imagined they would be manning the front lines of the culture wars.

Do You Need to Meet an Agent in Person to Get Published? – Kate McKean, Agents + Books – Is it actually helpful to meet with agents in person? Yes! But getting representation from them isn’t always the point.

Author John Grisham on “The French Illusion” – CBS Mornings – A fun interview with author John Grisham, who now has fifty consecutive #1 NY Times bestsellers to his name.

The More Specific Your Characters, The More Universal They Become – Tiffany Yates Martin, Jane Friedman – A great reminder that so much of good storytelling flows from specificity.

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. Hollywood, Ending by John Green
2. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
3. Vince Flynn: Double Tap by Don Bentley
4. Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult
5. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Swan Song by Charles Spencer
2. Roll the Calls by Ari Emanuel
3. Actually, Nevermind by Taylor Tomlinson
4. An Unexpected Life by Gloria Steinem
5. Pay Attention by David Pakman

Young adult hardcover:

1. Empire by Sabaa Tahir
2. Barbie: Dreamscape by Alex Aster
3. Our Strange Duet by Erin A. Craig
4. Wings of Reverie by Anna Bright
5. Styx by Nikita Gill

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
3. Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono
4. Match Day Mayhem by Dude Perfect with Allan Woodrow
5. Kiki and the New Magic by Eiko Kadono

This week on the blog

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

• How to interpret rejection letters

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

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And finally:

Why are AI agents lying, cheating and coordinating? – Yoshua Bengio – A clear explanation of why AI agents have been very bizarrely lying, cheating, and coordinating amongst themselves, leading to the major AI companies tapping the brakes on releases (supposedly anyway).

Have a great weekend!

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