Publishers Weekly - July 25, 2022

110 Pages·2022·65.5 MB·English

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See our review on p. 54.
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Volume 269 July 25,
New This Fall
Number 31 2022
ISSN 0000-0019
from
Indiana University Press
F
E AT U R E S
28
Getting Directions
The lure of travel is edging out pandemic anxiety, and guidebook
publishers are ready to help readers plot their next adventures.
36
New and Forthcoming Latinx
Titles
This fall, publishers will deliver a bounty of new books on the
diverse communities that make up the Latinx diaspora.
42
Printing in Hong Kong & China
Hong Kong and China print players remain steadfast in their mission
to under-promise, over-deliver, and continue innovating.
50
Queen of Hearts
Debbie Macomber, who overcame dyslexia to become a force in women’s
fiction, is poised to publish her 25th Christmas novel in 25 years.
83–103 BookLife 9780253062789 $49.00
Recent BookLife Prize finalist Laura Davis discusses her first memoir,
plus we’ve got reviews and more.
N
E W S
8 Showdown
The government’s bid to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition
of Simon & Schuster heads to trial August 1.
9 Unit Sales Dipped in Mid-July
Despite a huge gain in adult fiction, print unit sales fell 2.5% in the
week ended July 16, 2022, from the similar week last year.
12 PEN America Marks 100 Years
For the occasion, the New York Historical Society is hosting an
exhibition of artifacts, documents, ephemera, and posters from the
organization, dating from 1922 to the present day.
16 Deals
Crown buys Michelle Obama’s next book, Harper Select picks up
Joanna Gaines’s memoir, and more.
18 From the Archive
We look back at the liquidation of Crown Books, which was once the
third-largest bookstore chain in the U.S. before its closure in 2001.
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In her debut adult novel, seasoned author Catherine Newman confronts
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32,000,000 104 Soapbox by Ellen Meister
An author’s new book casts her almost perfect husband in a
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Print Copies
Editorial cover © Bastian Schweitzer
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The Week in Publishing
HER
HarperCollins union mem- MA
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OH President George Slowik Jr.
bers picketed the publisher’s OTOBYJ SenCioErO V &-P ,P Eudbitliosrhiaerl DCierveicnt oBrr yJeimrm Manill iot
New York headquarters on PH COO Carl Pritzkat
Senior V-P, Children’s Book Editor Diane Roback
July 20 as part of a one-day Senior V-P, Executive Editor Jonathan Segura
V-P, Sales & Associate Publisher Joe Murray
strike in their ongoing fi ght V-P, Operations Ryk Hsieh
Art Director Clive Chiu
Managing Editor Daniel Berchenko
for a new contract. Roughly
News Director Rachel Deahl
Senior News Editor Calvin Reid
100 members participated.
News & Digital Editor John Maher
Features Editor Carolyn Juris
Senior Writer Andrew R. Albanese
Bookselling & International Editor Ed Nawotka
Dwa&na aSdsnc npahauuCmbsatleiensdrhe’ sesd erfly nao, igfwo sSrhh ivomip- po n OURTESYPULITZERPRIZES Clmeamaiadlptl ieolsolftyfyo ea1epM4sp0,e ra odbxioai-ut 35% of ASRmeenAvaiinsoeRsdrwo SeaRscle i eiRgnEaviaidtMooiemeinrt ewoR iRgrEsreee s dLvEzv:i ie,tdieD eomCiwwtaraok svsErre i ,EldmE,i aCd dMAmnihittdnaioaola ydr rRKam rMPie otCsentoa,m.t ’n srePPc sarhAo e nGCopm ,Ware aDeanb,ee nnaenndvo nCaiandewr arBVa mralture nnrs,o
C Deputy Children’s Book Editor Emma Kantor
Editorial Assistant, Children’s Books Iyana Jones
imprint in July 2020, its workforce, in a bid to
Assistant Editor Drucilla Shultz
Associate Editor, News Sophia Stewart
will step down from that position next week to cut spending by $20 mil-
Deputy Art Director Bobby Lawhorn Jr.
Copy Chief Robby Ritacco
“focus on her writing,” S&S CEO Jonathan lion. The publisher will also Director of Marketing Krista Rafanello
Marketing Manager Stacey Gill
Karp wrote in a letter to staff. Karp will over- reduce its title output by DirectorofSpecialEditorialProjects Adam Boretz
BookLife Editor Matia Madrona Query
see the imprint for the foreseeable future. about half, to between BookLife Reviews Editor Alan Scherstuhl
Director of Digital Operations Michael Morris
400 to 500 titles. Digital Editorial Coordinator Marian Amo
Digital Department Assistant Nathalie Mairena
Digital Advertising Assistant Beatrice Viri
Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group
HR Generalist Nathaly Rivas
Accounts Receivable Cynthia Flaim
continues to make layoffs. After laying Scholastic rebounded from a
Accounts Payable Sylvia Joanne Slowik
Assistant Office Manager Catherine Hosch
off publisher James Lucas Jones and poor fi scal 2021 to post a sales
Correspondents:
West Coast Nathalie op de Beeck 253-306-3793
v-p of creative and business develop- increase of 26% in the fi scal Midwest Claire Kirch 218-310-1867
Asia Teri Tan ([email protected])
ment Charlie Chu at the end of June, year ended May 31, 2022. Editor at Large Louisa Ermelino
Contributing Editors: Michael Coffey, Sari Feldman,
the independent comics publisher Sales were $1.64 billion in the Liz Hartman, Brian Kenney, Daniel Lefferts, Sally Lodge,
Heidi MacDonald, Shannon Maughan, Marcia Z. Nelson, Diane
dismissed other year, and the publisher turned Patrick, Karen Raugust, Sonia Jaffe Robbins,
Judith Rosen
Regional Sales Team: Deena Ali, Ian Littauer, Julia Molino
senior staff mem- an operating loss of $22.7
Sales Coordinator Monique Vieu
Circulation Next Steps Marketing
bers in mid-July. million in fi scal 2021 to a profi t
Collections Alan Kula, AK Collections
IT Support ACS International
of $97.4 million in fi scal 2022. Licensing Director Christi Cassidy LLC
Production/Manufacturing Publishing Experts
Online & On-Air Web Engineering Mediapolis
Call for Interns: Kamille Carrera Pereira, Jason Chen, Ryan Phung
How to Reach Us
The Week Ahead Information 49 W. 23rd St., Ninth Floor, New York, NY 10010
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To subscribe, change an address, report delivery
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call 800-278-2991 or 847-513-6135,
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Department of Justice and Publishers and distributors: please pitch Licensing, Rights & Permissions
your best new calendars, card decks, post- Christi [email protected]
Penguin Random House and
Advertising
card packs, and puzzles releasing in 2022.
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Live from San Diego Comic-Con, China Sales
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6 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 25, 2022

News
Showdown
The government’s bid to block Penguin Random House’s
acquisition of Simon & Schuster is heading to trial
After a flurry of last-minute filings and orders, the The case
U.S. Department of Justice’s bid to block Penguin On its face, the government’s case appears to revolve around
Random House’s acquisition of rival Big Five pub- size. If allowed to acquire S&S, PRH would be “by far, the
lisher Simon & Schuster is ready for court. Oral largest book publisher in the United States, towering over
arguments are set to begin on August 1 before Judge Flor- its rivals,” with revenues “more than double its next closest
ence Pan at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in competitor,” the government complaint states. And with that
Washington, D.C., with the trial expected to run nearly three kind of scale, DOJ attorneys allege, the publisher would wield
weeks. “outsized influence over who and what is published, and how
According to recent filings, roughly 72 total hours have much authors are paid for their work,” in violation of Section
been allotted for arguments—38 hours for the government, 7 of the Clayton Act, the antitrust law first enacted in 1914.
and 34 hours for the defense. The witness lists include a But as filed, the government’s case doesn’t challenge PRH
few boldface names, including many of the Big Five CEOs, on size or market share, and instead focuses on author pay-
some major literary agents, and bestselling author Stephen ments—an allegation of monopsony as opposed to monopoly.
King, who is listed as a witness for the gov- A monopoly occurs when one firm becomes the
ernment. dominant, often sole supplier of a good or
The closely watched case holds major impli- service in a market. Monopsony, on the other
cations for a publishing industry that has been hand, occurs when one firm becomes the sole
grappling with consolidation for years. It also or dominant buyer of goods or services. Monop-
looms as a key test for the government amid oly cases alleging consumer harm are more
growing calls for more vigilant antitrust common, but monopsony cases are not uncom-
enforcement, and in the wake of a stinging mon. And publishing leaders are already quite
defeat in 2018 in its bid to block the massive familiar with the anticompetitive impacts of
$85 billion merger between AT&T and Time monopsony—after all, monopsony is what
Warner. critics accused Amazon of in the early days of
“Despite what some observers have said, the e-book market, leading five of the then Big
I think the government’s case is a pretty Six publishers to coordinate with Apple in 2010
Judge Florence Pen will oversee
standard horizontal merger case,” observed to move the e-book market to the agency model.
the government’s case to stop
Christopher T. Sagers, Cleveland-Marshall PRH’s purchase of S&S. Specifically, the government alleges that
College of Law professor and author of the allowing PRH—already the largest U.S. trade
2019 book United States v. Apple: Competition in America. publisher by a wide margin—to swallow up one of its major
“If the evidence supports its allegations, and if they can rivals for book rights would lead to fewer bidders for rights,
avoid getting sucked down some of the rabbit holes that causing author advances to suffer. While the government
will make up the defense’s rebuttal, the government has a alleges that author advances at all levels would likely be
reasonable chance of winning.” impacted, they especially home in on the advances of a very
Those are big ifs, however. Thus far, most of the evidence small subset of authors earning advances over $250,000,
in the case has been filed under seal, so what exactly it defined by the government as “anticipated top-selling books.”
shows is publicly unknown. Furthermore, Sagers acknowl- Such a reduction in author compensation would lead to “fewer
edged, there are “deeper, conceptual questions” facing authors being able to make a living from writing,” the govern-
the government’s case—largely because the case is ment states, and ultimately “fewer and less diverse books
focused on the potential harm the proposed deal poses being published.”
to author payments rather than on any alleged harm to Allowing one player to tower over its closest competitors
consumers. in an already concentrated industry raises other concerns,
8 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 25, 2022