A little Tuesday post in June
Realized I might not be able to do a ‘week in the life’ for June… so here’s a freeflow freebie post.
Industry thoughts:
A Man with a Book Club! Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show Book Club chooses Orbital by Samatha Harvey as its first pick. Orbital won the 2024 Booker Prize. So while I applaud Stephen for choosing a literary novel, it is not exactly a radical pick. Will this increase sales of literary novels? Bookscan is glitching this week but Orbital appears to be selling one-fifth the number of copies per week as Fourth Wing for the last month.
I maintain my belief that the type of guy that needs to start a bookclub to get guys reading again is Paul Mescal or Pedro Pascal.
Although there is also rumblings that the book club space is oversaturated and the smaller, niche, B-list celebrity book clubs do not significantly impact sales.
Overheard: “[Publishers are] struggling to sell debut fiction [to readers/consumers] but nobody has come up with a great new solution to solve the visibility and connection problems.” How are you discovering debut fiction? What convinces you to buy versus borrow from a friend or library? (To borrow, hehe, a way of thinking from Martha.)
Did Zando quietly fold its ByteDance-backed imprint 8th Note Press based on TikTok concerns or difficulty reaching Gen Z readers (their original stated mission?) Last Publishers Marketplace-reported acquisition was in 2024 but I feel like their first big book only came out last month… All my Gen Z information comes from as seen on, her work post was excellent.
Read a new book and touch grass, I’m begging you.
Recommended Substacks:
An informative post from Publishing Confidential on how publishers are crunching the numbers at this midyear mark.
How to keep promoting backlist (and a definition of backlist) from Not So Secret Agent
How to utilize your galleys from Book Publishing Brick by Brick
Reading thoughts:
“Why can’t every writer write as well as Jonathan Franzen?” We’re bookclubbing Crossroads with friends. Turn in the next novel to FSG, Franzen!
What’s the book of the summer? Last week Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere was the #1 New York Times best seller.
Entering the tote discourse: a Susan Alexandra bag is the perfect size for a little magazine.
