Book business

When bookstores across the United States closed last spring, Tyrrell Mahoney, the president of Chronicle Books, braced for disaster as she watched revenue plummet. Then, months into the crisis, Chronicle found an unlikely savior: the rapper Snoop Dogg and his two-year-old cookbook.  Read more

When the disruption hit the publishing industry ten years ago, I watched with a wary eye. After I finished The Freelancer's Survival Guide in the summer of 2010, I repurposed this weekly blog to help me understand the changes the publishing industry was undergoing. It seemed, in those heady days, that everything changed daily.  Read more

Walking the halls of the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. is always a mixed experience. The sheer size of the industry is daunting, as is the unbridled optimism of so many publishers that their stands will attract the business they need to survive. It's also a tad depressing to realize that most of the books on display will probably prove to be unprofitable.  Read more

Riley Sager is a debut author whose book, Final Girls, has received the ultimate endorsement. "If you liked Gone Girl, you'll love this," Stephen King has said. But unlike Gone Girl, Girl on a Train, The Girls, Luckiest Girl Alive and others, Final Girls is written by a man - Todd Ritter.  Read more

International publishing this season lies downwind of hot blasts of political potentials that many feel could be damaging to various countries' books industries and their readerships. Welcome to a Summer of Insecurity.