HBG Big News This Week: December 18-22, 2017

Following is a recap of major news at Hachette Book Group for the week of December 18-22, 2017:

Bestsellers: HBG has 18 titles on the New York Times Bestseller list dated December 31, including one #1—The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (Little, Brown; Running Press; Various Publishers) holds onto #1 on the Children’s Bestsellers (Picture Books) list. HBG’s distribution clients have five titles on the list this week, including one at #1—Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Amulet) tops the Children’s Bestsellers (Series) list. Also, HBG has 11 titles on the USA Today bestseller list, see the full list here.

Patterson gives to indies: Publishers Weekly announced this week the 2017 recipients of James Patterson’s Indie Bookseller Bonus Program. Patterson donated $350,000 (an additional $100,000 over past years) to 320 indie bookstore employees this holiday season, more than double the number of booksellers affected in 2016. Booksellers and bookstore owners at stores in areas particularly hard hit by hurricanes and wildfires were among the recipients. The full list of recipients can be found on the ABA website.

PEN Prize nominations: Ron Powers’s No One Cares About Crazy People (Hachette Books) is longlisted for the 2018 PEN / E.O. Wilson Prize, Alexis Okeowo’s A Moonless, Starless Sky (Hachette Books) is longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award, and Kate Fagan’s What Made Maddy Run (L,B) is nominated for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Winners will be announced in January 2018.

Movie news: Deadline announced the movie deal for Look Out For the Fitgerald-Trouts by Esta Spalding (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). Former Mad Men writer/co-executive producer Semi Chellas will write the screenplay.

TV news: Instinct (previously published as Murder Games by Little, Brown) by James Patterson and Howard Roughan has been turned into a television series starring Alan Cumming. The first episode is set to air March 11, 2018 on CBS.