Catte, as well as Thomas Geoghegan’s forthcoming
take on how to unite a polarized country, The History of
Democracy Has Yet to Be Written, will contribute to
another good year. Belt has also recently begun orga-
nizing virtual salons, during which a group of authors
discuss a topic, such as what it means to be a public
intellectual. “They’re going really well—and they sell
out quickly, as they’re different from standard author
events,” Bayne said.
Last year was up and down for Two Dollar Radio inColumbus, Ohio. “We were fortunate in publishing the
books we published this summer—they address the
current moment,” said publisher Eric Obenauf, noting
that 2020 revenue was down 5% from 2019, despite a
67% drop in sales between March and May. Hanif Abdur-
raqib’s 2017 essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until
They Kill Us gave the press a boost, selling 12,000 cop-
ies last year. A History of My
Brief Body by Billy-Ray Bel-
court, a collection of essays
about finding joy as a queer
Indigenous person, was also
an important contributor to
TDR’s revenue after its July
release; it’s now in its third
printing.
Praising indie booksellersfor championing TDR releases, Obenauf said the pub-
lisher is trying to support them in return by partnering
with them on preorder campaigns. TDR partnered with
Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis to offer signed cop-
ies of A History of My Brief Body. And while ramping
up its online marketing efforts, the press is emphasiz-
ing bundled backlist titles so as not to compete with
bookstores.
“We’re always going to do what we’re going to do,”Obenauf said, referring to the impact of the pandemic
on TDR’s future. But limiting the hours of TDR’s book-
store and café has allowed him to devote more time and
attention to the press, reading submissions and “mak-
ing stronger” upcoming releases, like Night Rooms by
Gina Nutt (Mar.).
This fall, TDR is publishing its first poetry collection,808s and Otherworlds by Sean Avery Medlin. Originally
submitted to the press’s Sator New Works Award, the
collection did not meet the press’s guidelines for the
prize, but, Obenauf said, the poems “leapt off the page.”
—Claire KirchWWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 5News
The Weekly Scorecard
Print Unit Sales Finish
February with 26% Gain
With the help of strong back list sales, unit sales of print
books rose 26% in the week ended Feb. 27, 2021, over
the similar week last year, at outlets that report to NPD
BookScan. The top title was Charlie Mack esy’s The Boy,
the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, published in October
2019, which had a huge sales spike, selling nearly
97,000 copies. The performance of The Boy helped drive
up unit sales in the adult fi ction category by 40.2% over
the week ended Feb. 29, 2020. Kristin Hannah had two
books with high placement on the fi ction list: The Four
Winds (#2, selling more than 43,000 copies) and Firefly
Lane (#4, selling more than 18,000 copies). Two new
books led the adult nonfi ction bestseller list: Believe It
by Jamie Kern Lima sold 29,000 copies, landing it in the
top spot, followed by Mark Hyman’s The Pegan Diet,
which sold more than 22,000 copies. Print unit sales
skyrock eted in the YA fi ction category, jumping 70.1%.
The Desolations of Devil’s Acre by Ransom Riggs was #
on the category list, selling more than 16,000 copies in
its fi rst week. Juvenile fi ction unit sales rose 30.2% over
2020 as Amelia Hepworth’s I Love You to the Moon and
Back stayed #1 in the category, selling more than
27,000 copies. Katty Kay’s Living the Confidence Code
sold almost 9,000 copies in its fi rst week, leading the
juvenile nonfi ction bestseller list; units in the category
increased 24.6%.ERS APPROXIMSOURCE: NPD BOOKSCAN AND ATELY 80% OF THE PRINT BOOK MPUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NPD’S U.S. CONSUMARKET AND CONTINUES TO GROWER MARKET PANEL COV-.TOTAL SALES OF PRINT BOOKS (in thousands)
FEB. 29, FEB. 27, CHGE CHGE
2020 2021 WEEK YTD
Total 13,080 15,063 26.0% 21.2%FEB. 29, FEB. 27, CHGE CHGE
2020 2021 WEEK YTD
Adult Nonfi ction 5,184 5,948 14.7% 14.1%
Adult Fiction 2,151 3,015 40.2% 27.3%
Juvenile Nonfi ction 1,04 8 1,306 24.6% 24.6%
Juvenile Fiction 3,062 4,078 33.2% 29.0%
Young Adult Fiction 291 495 70.1% 40.6%
Young Adult Nonfi ction 56 67 19.8% 50.3%UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY CATEGORY (in thousands)UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY FORMAT (in thousands)
FEB. 29, FEB. 27, CHGE CHGE
2020 2021 WEEK YTD
Hardcover 3,608 4,277 18.5% 20.2%
Trade Paperback 6,350 8,208 29.3% 22.3%
Mass Market Paperback 726 838 15.4% 8.7%
Board Books 844 1,173 39.0% 19.8%