8 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 9, 2020
News
300,000 people and host 2,500 exhibitors from 51
countries. And the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, originally
set for the end of March, has been moved to May 4–7, a
date that fair was still holding to at press time.AWP and BookExpo
Attendance at the Associated Writers and Writing
Programs annual AWP Conference & Bookfair, which
ran from March 4–7 in San Antonio, Tex., was notably
sparse. Organizers decided to hold the event despite
the fact that a public health emergency was declared in
the city due to the spread of the coronavirus there—a
decision that led to the resignation of the AWP coex-
ecutive director Diane Zinna. On March 5, Kathleen
Driskell, board chair of the AWP, said the organization
still expected as many as 7,500 attendees over the course
of the four-day event, as well as 500 vendors, with 200
panels scheduled to go ahead.
These figures seemed to present a best-case scenario.
When the event opened, approximately half the vendor
tables at the book fair were unoccupied, traffic at the
registration and book fair was light, and attendees
complained that the online scheduling tool lagged behind
in noting the numerous event cancellations.
Board member January Gill O’Neil expressed hope
that there was something to learn from the experience.
“Maybe the smaller fair will teach us some things and
give us ideas about how to have an even better conference
next year in Kansas City,” she said. AWP had previously
tweeted that it would offer refunds or credits toward the
2021 conference to anyone uncomfortable with traveling
to San Antonio.
In addition to running LBF, Reed organizes BookExpo
and BookCon, which are set for May 27–31 in New York
City, and the company reported that those two events
are proceeding as planned. In a statement, BookExpo
and BookCon event director Jenny Martin noted, “We
do not anticipate any changes or delays to our event.”
Martin added that Reed and its partners “are monitor-
ing the Covid-19 virus situation daily” and “are follow-
ing guidelines and precautions suggested by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control” and New York state and
city agencies.
“We will continue to monitor the status and guidelines
closely,” Martin said. “Should anything change we will,
of course, promptly keep our customers informed of
the action to be taken.” —Jim Milliot, with reporting
by Ed Nawotka and Rachel DeahlThe Weekly Scorecard
Print Units Fell 4% at the End
of February
Unit sales of print books had one of their worst weeks so far
in 2020 in late February. Units fell 4% in the week ended
Feb. 29, 2020, compared to the week ended Mar. 2, 2019, at
outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The adult fi ction and
juvenile fi ction categories both posted 8.6% sales declines. In
adult fi ction, Blindside by James Patterson and James O. Born
was #1 on the category ch art in the most recent week, selling
more than 29,000 copies, followed by Where the Crawdads
Sing by Delia Owens, which sold more than 16,000 copies.
A year ago, Crawdads was #1, selling about 27,000 copies,
followed by The Chef by Patterson and Max DiLallo, which
sold about 18,000 copies. Since the top sellers in the category
posted comparable numbers in 2020 and 2019, the 8.6% decline
in the category was evidence of weakness among midlist titles.
In juvenile fi ction, the sales drop was due to lower sales of
Dr. Seuss titles. In the week ended Mar. 2, 2019, nine of the
top 10 bestselling titles were Seuss books, and they combined
to sell about 215,000 copies. In the most recent week, while
eight of the top 10 bestsellers were by Seuss, they combined
to sell only about 124,000 copies. Adult nonfi ction sales were
up 2.8% over 2019. Four of the top fi ve bestsellers in the
category were new releases, led by Erik Larson’s The Splendid
and the Vile, which sold more than 49,000 print copies in the
week. Sales of juvenile nonfi ction had a big jump in the week,
increasing 39%. There’s No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe was
#1 on the category list, selling more than 13,000 copies.SOURCE: NPD BOOKSCAN AND ERS APPROXIMATELY 80% OF THE PRINT BOOK MARKET AND CONTINUES TO GROW.PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NPD’S U.S. CONSUMER MARKET PANEL COV-TOTAL SALES OF PRINT BOOKS (in thousands)
MAR. 2, FEB. 29, CHGE CHGE
2019 2020 WEEK YTD
Total 12,138 11,650 -4.0% 1.9%MAR. 2, FEB. 29, CHGE CHGE
2019 2020 WEEK YTD
Adult Nonfi ction 4,999 5,139 2.8% 3.1%
Adult Fiction 2,313 2,114 -8.6% 1.2%
Juvenile Nonfi ction 1, 074 1,016 -5.3% 4.6%
Juvenile Fiction 3,150 2,880 -8.6% 1.0%
Young Adult Fiction 371 283 -23.0% -8.3%
Young Adult Nonfi ction 38 53 39.0% 12.7%UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY CATEGORY (in thousands)UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY FORMAT (in thousands)
MAR. 5, FEB. 29, CHGE CHGE
2019 2020 WEEK YTD
Hardcover 3,700 3,477 -6.0% 1.3%
Trade Paperback 6,343 6,281 -1.0% 4.0%
Mass Market Paperback 858 749 -12.7% -8.4%
Board Books 861 775 -10.1% -1.7%continued from p. 6