TRADE NEWS Editor: Joann Giusto-Davis
A Horn-of-Plenty Autumn For First Novels
Hefty first printings, big promo budgets and an exciting range of author and themes defy fears that first novels are on the wane.
by Joann Giusto-Davis
Like farmers bringing in the sheaves, Publishers Row is reaping a bumper crop of first novels for fall 1980. According to a recent survey of 36 hardcover and paperback houses conducted by Publishers Weekly, more than 100 fictional first are being published between September 1980 and January 1981, with another 50 first novels estimated to be coming from small presses not polled. Defying dire predictions about the recession’s adverse impact on the publishing of new talent, a wide range of publishers are bringing first novelists along with implacable optimism. 🏠