The Rise of the Seven-Figure Advance

from a PW article by  By Rachel Deahl    Nov 21, 2014

Seven-figure book deals are nothing new in corporate publishing. But lately, these deals seem to be happening more frequently. During the run-up to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair in early October, three seven-figure deals for debut works were closed by Big Five houses. Shortly after the fair, the New York Times ran an article about a waitress who landed a high six-figure advance. The streak continued with news that St. Martin’s Press had paid seven figures for a debut novel by New York Times reporter Stephanie Clifford. And, two weeks ago, word broke that indie author Blake Crouch landed seven figures at Crown for Dark Matter, his science fiction novel. For some in the industry, the flurry of big advances is simply business as usual. Others, however, attribute the run to a dearth of great material, along with the ever-pressing need on the part of the big houses to publish major bestsellers.

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'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara PW's pick of the week.

A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara, Author

Yanagihara follows her 2013 debut novel, The People in the Trees, with an epic American tragedy. The story begins with four college friends moving to New York City to begin their careers: architect Malcolm, artist JB, actor Willem, and lawyer Jude. Early on, their concerns are money and job related as they try to find footholds in their respective fields. Over the course of the book, which spans three decades, we witness their highs and lows as they face addiction, deception, and abuse, and their relationships falter and strengthen.   (Publisher's weekly)

For the first eight months of 2014, adult book sales were down 1.6%

For the first eight months of 2014, adult book sales were down 1.6%, as all formats but downloadable audio had declines. E-book sales had the smallest drop, off only 0.1% to $853.3 million. Trade paperback sales were down just 0.7%, to $860.4 million. Hardcover sales were off a more noticeable 7.2% through the eight months and mass market paperback sales were down 3.4%.

In children’s/ya, e-book sales were up 56.5% and hardcover sales jumped 47.1%. E-books accounted for 15.0% of all children’s/ya sales in the January-August period up from 12.0% in the same span in 2013. E-books’ share of adult sales rose to 29.7% in 2014 from 29.2% in the first eight months of 2013.  Figures are based on reports from 1,209 publishers.  (From PW Article)

One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature

Powerful narrative, unforgettable characters, illustrations that stir the imagination, and insights that engage the mind and heart—literature for children is forged from the same enduring elements as literature for adults.  Children’s books with these qualities often shine for generations, with some achieving landmark fame.  A few such books ultimately go on to enter the canon of classics of children’s literature.

The Grolier Club’s milestone public exhibition, One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature, showcases one hundred books of this caliber, printed from 1600 to 2000.  On view from December 10, 2014 through February 7, 2015, the show includes such beloved books as Robinson Crusoe, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, Peter Rabbit, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlotte’s Web, The Cat in the Hat, Where the Wild Things Are, and Harry Potter.  These classics and others—many famous today, some only in their time—will bring smiles of enjoyment to adults and children alike.

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The World's 56 Largest Book Publishers, 2014

Although there was a fair amount of deal making among the global book publishing giants last year, those mergers and acquisitions did not have much of an impact on the top of Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly’s annual ranking, based on annual revenue, of the world’s largest publishers in 2013. Pearson came in first, with $9.33 billion in revenue, followed by Reed Elsevier, Thomson/Reuters, and Wolters Kluwer. All four educational and professional publishers held the same respective positions on the list in 2012 Random House was the largest publisher of trade books in 2013, and was fifth largest overall (its position also unchanged from 2012). The company benefited from its 53% stake in Penguin and the assumption of full control of Random House Mondadori in late 2012, which was renamed Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial at the end of last year. Together, Penguin Random House and RH’s German publishing group had sales of $3.66 billion in 2013 (with Penguin’s revenues for the last six months of the year reported in the PRH total; revenue for the first six months were attributed to Penguin parent company Pearson). Random House’s agreement with PRISA (ranked #24 on the 2013 list) to acquire the trade book segment of its Santillana Ediciones Generales business will likely be completed this year, meaning that the house will grow again in 2014.
(Click here for the complete list and article)

How BookVibe used Twitter to predict the Man Booker Prize winner

The prize has a transformative effect on the careers and finances of literary novelists. Last year’s The Luminaries (Granta) had sold only modestly on its initial publication, but has since gone on to shift 560,000 copies worldwide. Meanwhile, since taking the prize in 2003, Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi (Canongate) has sold 3 million copies, its film adaptation taking more than half-a-billion dollars at the box office. It has changed the fortunes of its publisher along the way. Heady stuff.

Imagine it were possible for publishers and booksellers to tell which are the books that successfully achieve that knife-edge balance between literary accomplishment and commercial success. It could have powerful implication for the publishing industry. And we think it might just be possible to do that by mining the data publicly available on Twitter.

We decided to test this theory

We gathered hundreds of thousands of tweets that mentioned the six books on the Man Booker Prize shortlist. Then we created an algorithm that looked at this data, aggregating what was being said about each book by whom and in what quantity to see if it were possible to use this information to predict the outcome of the prize. And we were surprised at the accuracy of the results.

(The Whole Article)

Starbucks Pick of the Week: S.E. Hinton's 'Rumble Fish'

By Judith Rosen Oct 28, 2014  For 

Ever since Starbucks launched its first digital book Pick of the Week in conjunction with Apple iBooks in September 2011 – an extended sampler of Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus – publishers have tried to leverage the program for both new and backlist titles. But perhaps none has reached quite so far into the backlist as digital publisher Diversion Books, which publishes the e-book of S.E. Hinton’s 40-year-old YA classicRumble Fish, the Oct. 14–20 Starbucks/iBooks Pick of the Week. Mary Cummings, v-p and editorial director of Diversion, says, “We think Rumble Fish can help a new generation of readers discover one of the most important young adult authors of all time. And we hope the offer will inspire longtime Hinton fans to reconnect with the author.”| 

Link to Library EBook Version

Full article on Publishers weekly