EABC Reminder, Fantasy Romance, and a Vintage Book Cover
A Brief Tuesday Edition of DHM
Front Matter: Editorial Assistant Book Club, August 2023
A quick, off-cycle Tuesday dispatch with some updates ahead of the usual full-length newsletter on Thursday (it’s one to get excited about, something you couldn’t imagine in your wildest dreams). This is a reminder for Dear Head of Mine readers to take out All Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky from your local library or pick up a copy from your local bookstore if you want to read along.
“Biggest” News in Books: Fantasy Romance vs. Literary Legend
It’s notable that last week the Pulitzer-Prize finalist and Patron Saint of independent bookstores Ann Patchett’s new novel Tom Lake hit the New York Times bestseller list at #2 on the hardcover fiction list in its first week on sale (typically the highest week of sales as it counts all preorders). Patchett novel was #2 to the 14th week of sales of a book called Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Yarros is romance author of many steamy books who has deftly half-stepped her way into a fantasy romance category that has absolutely rocketed in popularity in recent months. The secret sauce of these books’ mass appeal seems to be that they do not to lead with the romance but bury it a bit behind the fantasy/historical packaging to appeal to a wider audience who like romance but may not respond to buff-guy-forward cover art and titles (Fourth Wing is about dragon riders…the tagline “Fly…or die”, is this a play on ride or die? If so, bravo). See predecessors: Outlander and, more recently, A Court of Thorns and Roses.
To be accurate in our reporting, Ann Patchett was still #1 on the fiction combined list (print + eBooks). However, the hardcover ranking is still an extraordinary snapshot of where we are in publishing when you consider that a beloved, previously #1 bestselling author, with this month’s Reese Witherspoon book club pick, with Meryl…freaking…Streep narrating the audio book, and who appeared on the Today show was outsold in hardcover by a self-published romance, fantasy novel (likely popular on Tik Tok, unconfirmed). All reading is of course to the good, as Ann herself said on The New York Times book podcast: “God bless Colleen Hoover who is bringing all of these people who haven’t been ferocious readers…driving people to read.” (35:14). But what a bestseller list like this says foremost that readers have gone full-tilt toward fantasy escapism in our grim times (especially younger ones) as opposed to the reality of literary fiction (even for a decades-long favorite).
Bookkeeping: A Segment with Great Vintage Book Covers
Introducing “Bookkeeping”, an arbitrary segment to share vintage covers of books I already own or want to own. They have nothing to do with the content of the newsletter. Enjoy!
Observant readers already know that I own two different copies of this book, no doubt it will be three soon. Author’s Name Font A+, Cat A+, Ornery Expression A+.