An opportunity in NYC for international reporters to put down their notebooks and compare professional circumstances
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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Reporters and editors covering the book publishing trade converged on New York City this week, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer. The US’s own PW welcomed guests from Germany’s Buchreport, France’s Livres Hebdo, the UK’s The Bookseller, DosDoce in Spain, andPublishNews from Brazil, as well as writers from Italy, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and China.
The annual meeting is an opportunity for attendees to put down their notebooks and compare professional circumstances in their respective nations.
“In Germany, a strong holiday season reversed an alarming sales slide from 2017,” Albanese says. “After a volatile year, the German book industry close a hair above the previous year’s sales level and a decline in unit sales was offset by a price increase of the same magnitude.
“Meanwhile in France, despite an increase during the first half of the year, book sales finished down about 1.7 % in 2018,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
“However, that data does not include Amazon—which of course doesn’t play nice with others in terms of its data, and is growing in France, albeit at a slower rate. If Amazon were included, the sales trends would very likely be positive, according to Fabrice Piault, Livres Hebdo editor-in-chief.”
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
