As publishers vie to persuade us to pack their titles for the holidays, we chart the evolution of the ’beach read’Summer reads, beach reads, holiday reads … at this time of year, the publishing world works itself into a sweat trying to force its novels into our carry-on luggage, or over the ether on to our Kindles. There are more books sold in the summer than during any other season: the well-established publishing calendar tends to see hardbacks released in the autumn to be given as gifts at Christmas, then repackaged as paperbacks in late spring. As Donna Harrington-Lueker sets out in her history of the beach read, Books for Idle Hours, the summer publishing rush is at least a century old, and has typically aimed “airy and froth-like” books on “young ladies” (the quote is from an 1888 work on summer books by Arlo Bates). The summer fiction market is changing, though, with more and more “serious”, “literary” novels showing up where once there were only thrillers and crime novels, bonkbusters and romances. So it is that Normal People by Sally Rooney is currently piled high on the tables of WH Smith’s Travel alongside Lee Child, Jodi Picoult and Bernard Cornwell.I’m aware of how contentious and porous discussions of genre can be. Generic labels, though, are the terms that booksellers and publishers think in and for literary novels, the chances of summer success are still relatively slim. Tom Tivnan, managing editor of the Bookseller, points to Nielsen BookScan data that... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-14 07:00:23 UTC ]
WH Smith is soon to open a new store in Cardiff University Union selling a small book range of 20... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven and the latest Wimpy Kid title were the only books to sell over 300,000 print units in the first three months of 2013, according to Nielsen BookScan, but neither is in Amazon’s top 20 bestselling Kindle titles of the year, showing the disparity between print and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Book sales at WH Smith have dropped 6% like-for-like across the high street and travel divisions... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Half of the top 20 bestselling books of 2012 in print were either Fifty Shades titles or Hunger Games titles, and only one book not written by E.L. James or Suzanne Collins—Jeff Kinney’s latest Wimpy Kid title—cracked the one-million-copies-sold mark for the year, according to Nielsen BookScan,... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Unit sales of print books fell just over 9% in 2012 at outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan, roughly the same percentage decline posted between 2010 and 2011. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It comes as no surprise that Nielsen BookScan's top-selling print book lists for 2012 are dominated by Fifty Shades and the Hunger Games. See what else is on the lists. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Plympton—a startup publisher of serialized digital fiction—was created as 'a nimble alternative to the major publishers and online markets,' as the founders explain. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
News Corp. said on Monday that it is shutting down The Daily, its ambitious but expensive attempt to create an iPad newspaper, on Dec. 15. The decision follows a 22-month effort that delivered both some significant achievements—developing the iPad as a publishing platform, for example, and... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It used to be easy to give your loved ones books for the holidays. You went to a bookstore, browsed the shelves , and picked out something thoughtful: Jodi Picoult’s latest for your mom, Harry Potter for your niece, maybe a Bill O’Reilly rant for that uncle who never shuts up at Thanksgiving. ... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
EL James' best-selling Fifty Shades of Grey will compete with novels by Kate Mosse, JoJo Moyes and Bernard Cornwell at this year's National Book of the Year Awards. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Simon & Schuster just got a little smaller. The publishing division of CBS Corp., known for Bob Woodward bestsellers, Glenn Beck polemics and Stephen King novels, announced Tuesday that it was consolidating its imprints into four publishing groups. Most significantly, the Free Press, a... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sales of hardbacks through Nielsen BookScan's top 5,000 chart jumped 11% week on week last... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
After months of hype, the first adult novel from J.K. Rowling debuted with the third biggest print opening of 2012. At outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan, The Casual Vacancy sold 156,679 copies in its first week—enough to place it behind only No Easy Day by Mark Owen (254,046 copies) and Fifty... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A week ago, Salon.com published an interview with the novelist Jeffrey Eugenides titled, “Jeffrey Eugenides: I don’t know why Jodi Picoult is belly-aching.” Eugenides was asked a question about gender bias in the publishing world (a topic about which Picoult, along with other novelists like... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Since the publisher’s launch in early 2009, the Experiment’s biggest success has surprised even its staff: Forks over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health has become a smash hit, selling 127,000 copies since its publication in summer 2011 (it’s also the #47 bestselling book of the year so far... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Landing at #2 on the German fiction chart in August is the fourth in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series, Journal 64; Adler-Olsen is an international bestselling thriller writer whose first two novels in this series were published in quick succession by Dutton. The Keeper of Lost Causes was... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Hodder is planning its most "innovative" campaign for Jodi Picoult's next novel,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The price-fixing case turns out well for Amazon but unsettles many others in the industry.Publishing insiders worry that a decisive court ruling benefiting retailer Amazon.com Inc. will undermine an industry already struggling with the transition to ebooks. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Eli Horowitz does not think of himself as someone who “fetishizes the book.” But he’s also seen what books become, in digital form, and has not always been impressed. A former managing editor and publisher at McSweeney’s, Horowitz describes much of what he has seen in the digital revolution in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Retailers say the summer’s mixed weather is giving book sales a lift, with Nielsen BookScan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this