Supply chain woes, holiday sales, and more—and a bit of explanation
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, Diana Gabaldon, Author, Delacorte Press, $36 sold 182,941 in its first week out. The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona received an initial shipment of 20,000 books (four trucks and over 30 pallets of books, now in their own warehouse) with another 10,000 books to arrive by the end of December. Gabaldon has the arduous task of autographing many of them. Click here to see what 20,000 books of one title looks like. Some of the books were pre-ordered several years ago.
B&N Founder Funds $5.6 Million Scholarship for Black Medical Students
Unit sales rose 9.7% the last week of November over 2020 as adult fiction sales jumped 35.3%. For the same time period last year, Barack Obama’s A Promised Land led sales figures.
October early holiday book sales saw an increase of 53.4% over the same time in 2020.
Cuomo Ordered to Forfeit Book Earnings
New York state ethics board has ordered Andrew Cuomo to hand over the $5.1 million he’s made from book sales for his 2020 pandemic memoir American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic citing a breach of agreement. The book was published through Penguin Random House imprint, Crown. Harper Collins has announced they are cancelling their agreement to publish Chris Cuomo.
Judge extends discovery deadline in Internet Archive book-scanning suit–the discovery deadline has been extended until January 31, 2022, and a possible second extension as each side makes new claims. Four major publishers (Hatchette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Wiley) have filed suit against the Internet Archive for scanning and lending print library books.
PRH Fires Back at the DoJ’s Effort to Stop Its S&S Purchase
A Hell of a Book by Jason Mott has been named 2021 National Book Award Winner. Congratulations!
Knopf Publishing has expanded its cookbook publishing program with the formation of Knopf Cooks, led by executive editor, Lexy Bloom.
The future of publishing as seen by Michael Pietsch of Hachette. One of the most important was to find publishing is portable. No need for expensive office space, giant in-person conferences, no commutes—publishers are learning new ways to do business. See what else he predicts.
Passings…
Former president and chairman at Baker Book House Richard Baker died on December 12. He was 86.
Interview with a Vampire author Anne Rice, 80, whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died of complications from a stroke on December 12.
