Here’s a book publishing riddle for 2012: When is a book not good for a bookstore?
“Earlier this year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a licensing agreement with Amazon to publish and distribute adult titles under the New Harvest imprint,” explains Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly features editor. At the time, he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally, “Independent bricks-and-mortar booksellers, as well as the nation’s two largest chains, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, said they wouldn’t carry those titles. Now, with the first two books about to ship, PW’s Judith Rosen went back to the same booksellers and found them even more committed than before not to sell Amazon-published books.”
In the week’s review of PW reviews, Adam Boretz, reviews editor, has word on a comics title that’s “an evocative throwback to the superheroes of yore.” In God and Science: The Return of the Ti-Girls, he explains, author Jaime Hernandez fuses the spirit of Silver Age superhero comics with the ongoing soap opera of Maggie, the former-mechanic now turned manager of a shabby Southern California apartment complex. Boretz says the PW reviewer found the book, “a package of terrific dialogue, stellar artwork, and enough raw fun to drown in.”
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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.