6 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 5, 2019
News
I
t would be hard for a new imprint to get off to
a better start with its first book than Simon &
Schuster’s Avid Reader Press did with the
release of Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. The
book, published July 9, immediately hit a
number of bestseller lists, landing at #4 on
PW’s Hardcover Frontlist Nonfiction list. Now
in its eighth printing, Three Woman has
180,000 copies in print, according to Jofie
Ferrari-Adler, Avid Reader v-p and publisher.
The imprint was formed late last October by
Ferrari-Adler and editor-in-chief Ben Loehnen,
both of whom had been editors at S&S’s flag-
ship imprint. Ferrari-Adler acknowledged that starting an
imprint at the company where he worked, as opposed to
moving to a different house, provided some advantages—most
notably that he already had a pipeline of books that could be
released under the Avid Reader banner. One of those books
was Three Women, which he acquired in 2010. The success
of Three Women “has given the team lots of confidence” about
the imprint’s future, he said.
With the recent hiring of editorial director Lauren Wein,
who will oversee the imprint’s fiction program, that team is
now up to 11 people. Ferrari-Adler gave credit for Three
Women’s success to a number of the staff, including art
director Alison Forner, deputy director of publicity Jordan
Rodman, and associate publisher
Meredith Vilarello. Ferrari-Adler believes
Three Women also illustrates the success
of one of Avid’s three main operating
principles: building partnerships. He
noted that Three Women was a huge
favorite inside S&S, and that it was quickly
adopted by independent booksellers,
who made it a #1 IndieNext pick for July.
Even before the book was released,
Ferrari-Adler said, there was a good
working relationship between Taddeo;
her agent, Jennifer Joel; and the Avid
staff. “We are looking to build a feel-good
vibe here,” he added.
That vibe will be created in part by
keeping the list relatively small (25–
titles per year when the imprint is fully
staffed)—an approach that will allow Avidto “publish with a lot of focus,” Ferrari-Adler
said.
Ferrari-Adler noted that originally, he had
seen 2019 as something of a “soft launch” for
Avid—a year when he and Loehnen would build
the team they wanted while demonstrating to
the industry what Avid is all about. The splash
made by Three Women, which was recently
optioned by Showtime, accelerated his plan
somewhat, but Ferrari-Adler has been around
publishing long enough to know that he won’t
always be on top.
Still, Ferrari-Adler believes that Avid could
have a hit with its second book. The Only Plane in the Sky:
An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett Graff received a PW
starred review ahead of its September 10 release and has a
35,000-copy first printing. Four other titles are planned for
2019: Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan; The Life and
Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski; Life is Magic by
Jon Dorenbos; and What It Takes by Stephen Schwarzman,
chairman, CEO and cofounder of Blackstone.
“We’re gratified by the early support,” Ferrari-Adler said.
“When I look back on my most satisfying publishing experi-
ences, they all had one thing in common: collaboration. We
plan to keep collaborating with authors, agents, booksellers,
and the media.” —Jim MilliotAvid Reader Press Off to Quick Start
Industry Stocks: July Performances
In what turned put to be a quiet
month on the Publishers Weekly
Stock Index, the share prices of five
companies rose in July and an equal
number fell. As a result, the PWSI
dipped by less than one-tenth of a
percentage point over the course
of the month. The PWSI perfor-
mance wasn’t much different than
that of the Dow Jones Industrial
Average, which had a 1% increase in
July. The biggest news on the pub-
lishing industry side was the plunge
in the share price of LSC Communi-
cations. The acquisition of the coun-
try’s second-largest printer by
Quad, the U.S.’s biggest printer, was
called off after objections from the
Department of Justice. Following
the termination of the deal, LSC
lowered its expectations for earn-
ings and cash flow for 2019 and
said it had suspended its dividend.
SOURCE: PUBLISHERS WEEKLYMarket WatchCompany June 28 July 31 Change
CBS 48.73 51.51 5.7%
B&N Education 3.36 3.50 4.2%
Scholastic 33.17 34.17 3.0%
Pearson 10.36 10.54 1.7%
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 5.76 5.85 1.6%
John Wiley 45.86 45.51 -0.8%
Barnes & Noble 6.69 6.53 -2.4%
News Corp 13.96 13.46 -3.6%
Educational Dev. Corp. 6.99 6.65 -5.1%
LSC Communications 3.67 0.96 -74.0%
Publishers Weekly
Stock Index 178.55 178.68 0.08%
Dow Jones Avg. 26,599.96 26,864.27 1.0%