Penguin Random House is gearing up for the upcoming holiday season with the announcement of its now annual seasonal rapid-shipping program for independent booksellers. It is also offering some new things this holiday; a letter from PRH U.S. CEO Madeline McIntosh, to employees, pointed out some seasonal publishing highlights.
In her letter, McIntosh acknowledged that because the publishing schedule was skewed toward the end of the year, “some of our earlier months [were] a little sleepier than I’d have liked,” But, she added, that has changed, pointing to such adult nonfiction bestsellers as 12 Rules for Life, which has sold nearly 900,000 copies, and Educated, which has sold 500,000 copies in all formats.
In adult hardcover fiction, McIntosh noted that Little Fires Everywhere has sold over 800,000 copies this year, while Before We Were Yours has moved 700,000 copies. Adult paperback has been led by the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy which has sold a total of 1.2 million copies in 2018. Wonder continues to be a major hit for the children’s department, selling more than 600,000 copies this year and more than 6.3 million since its release.
PRH’s fall list, is led of course, McIntosh noted, by the release of Michelle Obama’s Becoming, set to hit shelves November 13. McIntosh also highlighted authors who have big books coming this fall in certain categories. In cooking: Ina Garten, Chrissy Teigen, Yotam Ottolenghi, Gina Homolka. In young adult: Ransom Riggs, Markus Zusak. In history: Michael Beschloss, Ben Macintyre, Nathaniel Philbrick, Hampton Sides. And, in fiction: Lee Child, Paulo Coelho, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, George R. R. Martin, Haruki Murakami, Jodi Picoult, John Sandford, Danielle Steel.
PRH will support its titles with its now seven year-old 2-Day-Transit program through which the publisher will ship orders from its Westminster, Maryland and Crawfordsville, Indiana operations centers for its physical titles, received from indies booksellers by 3 p,m, ET Monday-Friday, to arrive at the bookseller in two days or less.
The 2018-19 initiative begins October 1 and runs through March 1, 2019. Titles published by all PRH divisions as well as clients of its distribution arm, Penguin Random House Distribution Services, are eligible for the program.
“We are thrilled by and proud of how popular and integral our 2-Day program continues to be with our accounts,” said Jaci Updike, president of U.S. sales for PRH, in a statement. “From its beginnings as a two-month pilot experiment, it has been extended and expanded to reflect the evolution of our business. But its primary intention has never changed: to empower indies to order and receive our titles quickly and efficiently, so they can enjoy uninterrupted profit from consumer demand for them.”
