Dive Brief:
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Book publishers are hoping that print books will help save their year, and are ordering up extra print copies of their most promising titles.
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The books getting the most attention are holiday-friendly titles, like a story from Mitch Albom about a guitarist playing magical strings, make-up tips from supermodel Christie Brinkley, and a biography of former President George H.W. Bush from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author that has already hit the news.
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The plans come as publishers’ skirmishes with Amazon have finally been resolved, but as e-book sales have fallen, possibly as a result.
Dive Insight:
Books are a popular gift item at the holidays, and publishers are trying to leverage that as thoroughly as possible this year. Certainly, it’s definitely less fun to give an e-book—they’re so difficult to wrap—and the choice of a certain title can be a handy way to express affection for a loved one or solve a gift-giving conundrum for someone less well known to the giver.
Books sales floundered somewhat in the first half of this year, down 1.4% at $3.09 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers. And e-books sales are down now that publishers have wrested control of them from Amazon and raised prices.
But print books are doing fairly well, relatively speaking, and independent booksellers are something of a success story in the e-commerce age.
“There may not be one stand-out title yet, but I think the breadth and complexion of this holiday’s new titles is better than in 2014,” Barnes & Noble VP of adult trade and children’s books Mary Amicucci told the Wall Street Journal.