BTW News Briefs

AAP's Book Editors Unscripted Underway

The Association of American Publishers' new webcast series Book Editors Online & Unscripted launched on Tuesday, September 16. The series is designed to provide a sneak preview from the "nation's top editorial brass, via webcast, on the book picks of Winter 2009."

Remaining webcasts in the current series include:

• Tuesday, September 23
  Noon - 12:30 pm: George Witte, vice president, editor in chief, St. Martin's Press
  3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Eric Raab, editor, Tor/Forge
  3:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.: Kathryn Court, president & publisher, Penguin Books

• Wednesday, September 24
  Noon - 12:30 p.m.: Gillian Blake, executive editor, Collins (HarperCollins USA)
  3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Helen Atsma, editor, Henry Holt & Company

• Thursday, September 25
  Noon - 12:30 p.m.: Chuck Adams, executive editor, Algonquin
  3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Deb Futter, vice president, editor in chief, Grand Central Publishing

Registration for any or all of the above and complete scheduling information is available at http://publishers.webex.com.

Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards Announced

The Rona Jaffe Foundation will honor its 2008 Writers' Awards winners at a ceremony on Thursday, September 18, in New York City. This year's winners are Jennifer Culkin, Joanne Dominique Dwyer, Amy Leach, Jolie Lewis, Hasanthika Sirisena, and Therese Stanton.

The program was created by the novelist Rona Jaffe to identify and support women writers of talent and promise in the early stages of their writing careers. Jaffe passed away in 2005. The winners, chosen in the categories of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, will receive awards of $25,000 each.

Audiobook Sales Surpass One Billion Dollars 

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) has released the results of its 2008 Consumer Survey and 2008 Sales Survey, which were conducted to measure the growth of the audiobook industry as well as gain an accurate picture of audiobook listeners' behaviors. Independent research firm LewisClarkBoone Market Intelligence surveyed a sample of American consumers, as well as audiobook publishers, who reported sales data from 2007.

Among the APA survey's findings:

• Twenty-eight percent of adult respondents have listened to an audiobook in the last year, a growth of three percent from the survey results in 2006

• Audiobook listeners are more likely than the general public to read and purchase printed books. Ninety-two percent of audiobook listeners reported that they have read a printed book in the past year -- a third of them have read 16 or more.

• Young listeners are the fastest growing market segment. The Consumer Survey reported that 53 percent of teens have listened to an audiobook. And 63 percent of respondents said a child in their household has listened to an audiobook.

• Audiobook listeners are most likely to be listening in their cars.

• The top five favorite audiobook genres reported by respondents were Mystery/Thriller/Suspense; General Fiction; Science Fiction/Fantasy; Biography/Memoir; and Classic Fiction.

For more information, go to www.audiopub.org.

AAP Reports Publishing Sales for Month of July

Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of July decreased by 6.7 percent to $1.536 billion and were down by 2.0 percent for the year.

The Adult Hardcover category was up by 9.4 percent in July with sales of $84.9 million but year-to-date sales were down by 5.0 percent. Adult Paperback sales increased 9.6 percent for the month ($113.5 million) and increased by 10.9 percent for the year. The Adult Mass Market category was up by 29.6 percent for July, with sales totaling $78.8 million; sales were also up by 3.1 percent year-to-date. The Children's/YA Hardcover category saw a decrease of 77.2 percent for the month, with sales of $58.6 million; sales for year-to-date have dropped by 40.8 percent. The Children's/YA Paperback category was up 36.4 percent in July with sales totaling $45.6 million, reflecting an increase of 13.2 percent for the year.

Audio Book sales posted a decrease of 65.8 percent in July, with sales totaling $11.0 million; sales for the whole year were down by 28.9 percent. E-books sales jumped up by 71.1 percent for the month ($4.5 million); the category also posted an increase of 47.5 percent for the year. Religious Books saw an increase of 24.3 percent for the month with sales of $41.7 million, though sales were down by 7.1 percent for the year.