As of the April 28 lists, the New York Times is changing their Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous bestseller lists. The separate hardcover and paperback lists–each listing 10 positions, with another 5 “also selling” titles–are combined into a single list with 20 numbered positions. The new combined list also incorporates ebook sales along with print sales. (Up until now, the paper has noted “e-book sales for advice & how-to books, children’s books and graphic books will be tracked at a future date.”) The first iteration is dominated by food and diet books, but a new business bestseller–PL Spring/Summer Buzz Book […]
Archives for April 2013
Spain’s Alfaguara Is In Play
Spain’s PRISA Group has officially denied recent reports in Spanish media that they have agreed to sell their literary line Alfaguara and its imprints to Random House. But at the same time, the company admits that it “has maintained and is in talks for the transmission of this asset and other Grupo Prisa assets with various partners.” PRISA says it will communicate further if and when a deal is agreed upon. Spain’s leading media company, PRISA has suffered under debt of billions of euros, made worse by the poor Spanish economy, and has already been through multiple restructurings. Book publisher […]
Authors and Awards
Dwight Garner profiles John le Carré in this weekend’s NYT Magazine, saying he “is still writing at something close to the top of his game.” On his May release A DELICATE TRUTH, Garner writes: “The book is an elegant yet embittered indictment of extraordinary rendition, American right-wing evangelical excess and the corporatization of warfare. It has a gently flickering love story and a jangling ending. And le Carré has not lost his ability to sketch, in a line or two, an entire character.” Also in the magazine is an excerpt from Brian Stelter‘s TOP OF THE MORNING, which publishes next week. Time magazine selects their annual list of “the 100 […]
ICM Joins Other Agencies In Helping Clients, Like David Mamet, Publish Directly
A modest and long-expected press release–ICM Partners will offer Perseus’s Argo Navis self-publishing program to their authors, and announces 3 books in that release that will be available through the initiative–takes an expansive turn in today’s NYT that will likely confuse the average reader. (Argo Navis tells us that ICM is actually starting with about 10 titles in the program.) As we reported 18 months ago, ICM has long been in negotiations about using Argo Navis as at least one option for their clients. The Times tells readers ICM “is one of the biggest and most powerful agencies to offer […]
People, Etc.
A.S.A. Harrison, 65, died April 14 in Toronto. Her debut psychological suspense novel THE SILENT WIFE will be published by Penguin Books, who said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened over the loss of a great woman and a very gifted writer.” A memorial service for longtime Knopf vp, senior editor Ashbel Green, who died last September at the age of 84, will be held in New York at Cooper Union on Thursday, April 25th at 5:00 pm in the Great Hall. A funeral for bestselling author Brennan Manning, best known for The Ragamuffin Gospel, will be held Wednesday, April 17, […]
Awards: Women’s Prize Shortlist; Guardian Hot Key Winners; Pulitzer Reprint Plans
The UK prize formerly known as the Orange, now called the Women’s Prize, posted a powerful shortlist, as Hilary Mantel looks to add a third award alongside her Booker and Costa. The winner will be named June 5: Kate Atkinson, Life After Life AM Homes, May We Be Forgiven Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies Maria Semple, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? Zadie Smith, NW You can find previous winners listed here. The first Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers prize has awarded publishing contracts to two young YA writers in their twenties. Hot Key Books will […]