6/1/2020 Fall Is Now Jam-Packed for Book Publishers. That Could Be a Problem.

- The New York Times

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Fall Is Now Jam-Packed for Book Publishers. That Could Be a Problem.

Books scheduled for release this spring and summer are now on track for fall, when authors will be fighting for attention in the midst of a
presidential election and an ongoing crisis.

By Alexandra Alter

June 1, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET

In March, when parts of the United States began shutting down because of the coronavirus, the best-selling children’s book author Jeff
Kinney faced a dilemma.

“Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure,” part of his popular Wimpy Kid series, was due out in April with a first printing of three
million copies. His publisher had lined up a 10-city tour.

In a matter of days, those plans crumbled. “The book was about to land in stores that were closed to customers at the height of a
pandemic,” Mr. Kinney said.

He and his publisher decided to postpone the release until August, in hopes that by then, his tour could be resurrected. Millions of copies
are now sitting in warehouses. “It wasn’t an easy decision,” he said. “We knew lots of kids would enjoy the book while in lockdown.”

Delaying a book’s publication is a calculation that authors and publishers throughout the industry have made and wrestled with in recent
months, as the pandemic has devastated the retail landscape and led to canceled tours, book fairs, literary festivals and media
appearances. As publishers scramble to limit the economic fallout and sales declines driven by the epidemic, hundreds of books that were
scheduled to come out this spring and early summer have been postponed, in some cases until next year.

The latest Wimpy Kid book from Jeff Kinney is among the many titles whose release
dates are being pushed back. “It wasn’t an easy decision,” he said. Right: Ole Berg-
Rusten/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Delayed titles include literary fiction by Elena Ferrante and David Mitchell, a book about manhood and parenting by the actor and
comedian Michael Ian Black, “God-Level Knowledge Darts” from the comedy duo Desus and Mero, and nonfiction by prominent public
intellectuals like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Pankaj Mishra. The result is what looks to be an avalanche of high-profile books this fall, in the
middle of a presidential election and an ongoing health and economic crisis, when consumers may be even more distracted.

“We’re a little afraid of the fall season being a gridlock of big books,” said Jonathan Burnham, the publisher of the HarperCollins imprint
Harper, which has moved a handful of books, including “Battlegrounds,” from Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the former national security
adviser.

It may not be a bad problem to have. A flood of eagerly anticipated content is certainly preferable to the canceled shows, concerts and
other events that have disrupted the broader cultural world.

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6/1/2020 Fall Is Now Jam-Packed for Book Publishers. That Could Be a Problem. - The New York Times
Still, for publishers, who carefully calibrate their release dates so that big titles land on shopping-heavy holidays and don’t bump up
against one another, the changes feel like a high-stakes game of Jenga. The reshuffling has caused logistical logjams, as books by
prominent authors move into an increasingly crowded window for media attention, reviews and bookstore display space. Some publishers,
particularly smaller houses, worry that printing plants will be overwhelmed, which could make it difficult to keep books in stock.

“Most of us expected that, by fall, things would be, if not exactly back to normal, pretty close to it,” said the literary agent Bill Clegg, whose
own novel, “The End of the Day,” was delayed until late September. “Now, two and a half months later, that idea has a distant, once-upon-a-
time quality to it.”

“Most of us expected that, by fall, things would be, if not exactly back to normal, pretty
close to it,” Bill Clegg, the author of “The End of the Day,” said. His book has been
postponed until September. Right: Van Scott-Clegg

Most editors say they are making decisions about release dates on a case-by-case basis, weighing factors like an author’s following, a
book’s chances for prominent retail display, and whether major media appearances or book-club picks have already been scheduled.

Hachette has delayed fewer than 20 percent of its titles and has largely stayed on schedule with its best-known authors, said Michael
Pietsch, its chief executive.

“Others that rely on retail display and bookseller recommendations, it makes sense to move — with awareness that there’s going to be a
huge pileup of books vying for attention once bookstores reopen,” he said.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has moved more than 30 of its books, among them Larry Tye’s biography of Senator Joseph McCarthy and
Crystal Smith’s young adult fantasy “Greythorne.”

The University of Chicago Press postponed 18 titles from its spring lineup to September. “Our thinking was that between the temporary
closure of bookstores and the distracted state of the media and the consumer marketplace, they would have a better shot at reaching a
broad audience that way,” said Elizabeth Branch Dyson, the press’s executive editor.

Other publishers have been reluctant to reschedule release dates, since there’s no guarantee that things will be better in the fall. Even if
more bookstores reopen, customers may still be wary of them, and the economic fallout could worsen.

“Where are you going to move a book to? You’re going to move it to the fall, where you have the election and all these spring books that
have moved?” said Morgan Entrekin, publisher and chief executive of Grove Atlantic, which has postponed just a few titles. “All the
decisions we make are guesswork. None of us know what we’re doing.”

For authors with a big international audience, changing a release date gets even more complicated.

When Europa Editions decided to push back the publication of Ferrante’s novel “The Lying Life of Adults” from June to September, it
scrambled to get two dozen international publishers on board. Europa had already printed 150,000 copies of the English translation by Ann
Goldstein, and fans of Ms. Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” books likely would have relished the chance to read her latest while sheltering
in place. But her publisher decided against publishing the novel when many independent stores are still closed.

“It felt like it would have been a betrayal of the booksellers that have done so much for her,” said Michael Reynolds, Europa’s editor in
chief.

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6/1/2020 Fall Is Now Jam-Packed for Book Publishers. That Could Be a Problem. - The New York Times

Despite widespread bookstore closures, book sales haven’t cratered. Print sales so far this year are flat compared with the same period
last year, suggesting that readers are still buying, according to NPD BookScan.

The Coronavirus Outbreak

Frequently Asked Questions and Advice

Updated June 1, 2020

• How do we start exercising again without hurting ourselves after months of

lockdown?
Exercise researchers and physicians have some blunt advice for those of us
aiming to return to regular exercise now: Start slowly and then rev up your
workouts, also slowly. American adults tended to be about 12 percent less
active after the stay-at-home mandates began in March than they were in
January. But there are steps you can take to ease your way back into regular
exercise safely. First, “start at no more than 50 percent of the exercise you
were doing before Covid,” says Dr. Monica Rho, the chief of musculoskeletal
medicine at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Thread in some preparatory

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Well-known writers, like Suzanne Collins, the author of “The Hunger Games,” as well as John Grisham and Stephen King, are weathering
the crisis, since their fans snap up their books and can often find them at big-box stores that have remained open.

“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” by Ms. Collins, has sold more than 500,000 copies since it went on sale on May 19. Mr. Grisham’s
“Camino Winds,” which went on sale in late April, has sold more than 207,000 copies, and Mr. King’s new book, “If It Bleeds,” sold nearly
200,000 hardcover copies in its first month, according to NPD.

“If there’s a retail outlet that’s open and sells toilet paper, that’s where you want to be,” said Nan Graham, senior vice president and
publisher of Scribner, which published “If It Bleeds” in late April.

But for writers without a devoted following — especially debut authors or nonfiction writers who depend on media appearances to drive
sales and attention — publishing in a pandemic could pose insurmountable obstacles.

In an ominous sign of how far-off normalcy may be for authors, some anticipated works of fiction have been bumped to next year. Namina
Forna’s young adult fantasy debut, “The Gilded Ones,” which was due out in May from Random House Children’s Books, was postponed
until March. Michael Sears’s new thriller, “Tower of Babel,” which Soho Press planned to release this summer, has also been delayed until
2021.

“How are those books going to be discovered if they’re not in the stores?” said Bronwen Hruska, publisher of Soho Press. “In some cases,
we’ve pushed some books really far out.”

Kate Russo’s debut novel, “Super Host,” has been moved to 2021. Right: Tom Butler

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6/1/2020 Fall Is Now Jam-Packed for Book Publishers. That Could Be a Problem. - The New York Times
In mid-March, Kate Russo was preparing to meet with booksellers in five cities to promote her debut novel, “Super Host.” The book, about
a washed-up artist who begins subletting his London home as a vacation rental, was shaping up to be a hit, with strong support from indie
booksellers. But her publisher, Putnam, postponed it, fearing it would never gain traction with readers when bookstores were closed.

Anticipating a crowded fall, it moved its release date to February. What the retail landscape, and the world, will look like then is anyone’s
guess.

“We’re definitely going to lose something by moving these books out,” said Sally Kim, the publisher of Putnam. “It’s an unknown.”

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