There are many weeks I find myself sending a variety of short notes with news and insights from the world of business book publishing. These notes go to authors, friends and colleagues who might benefit. Not quite the depth of one of my research reports, but much of this is little things that aren’t really reported in other places.
Notable Launches
- How I Built This by Guy Raz launched last week and took the #1 spot.
- How to Lead by David Rubenstein is still selling in its third week on-sale and arrives at the #5 slot.
- No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer made this list in its second week at the #6 slot. The real note here is they sold enough copies last week to make #1 and didn’t make the list. This is likely from too many bulk sales or a concentration of too many sales with one retailer.
- The Tao of Influence: Ancient Wisdom For Modern Leaders and Entrepreneurs by Karen McGregor – new book opening at #8.
- If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore – also a new book at #16.
Notable Notables
The Financial Times and McKinsey announced the shortlist for the 2020 Business Book of the Year award:
- No Filter by Sarah Frier (Simon & Schuster)
- No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer (Penguin Press)
- Reimagining Capitalism by Rebecca Henderson (PublicAffairs)
- If Then by Jill Lepore (Norton)
- A World Without Work by Daniel Susskind (Metropolitan)
And Ryan Holiday is running the preorder campaign for his new book Lives of the Stoics. To support traditional retail, he signed 3,000 copies for Barnes and Noble and as a lottery surprise, he added inscriptions to 10% of those copies. Any preorder gets you a 90-minute discussion with him and three bonus chapters. The preorder campaign ends September 29th.
