We let the AP and our selected authors and publishers take the lead in making the announcement of our release of the big new Publishers Lunch Buzz Books 2015: Fall/Winter and Fall/Winter Young Adult free ebook samplers. We first created Buzz Books three years to solve two problems: Curating and sharing the wealth of “buzz books” on display at BEA well beyond one or two panel slots, to help attendees arrive with real knowledge of some of the important books (and to share BEA with those across the trade who don’t attend), and anticipating how you might achieve the “great giveaway” effect across thousands of regular readers as they were drawn into BEA (and again, taking the excitement of early, insider trade access to a big population of book buyers).
Three years later we’re issuing our tenth and eleventh Buzz Books collections, and we’ve built a population of booksellers, librarians, reviewers/media but also core readers, bloggers, fans and more who eagerly wait for the new collections and post hundreds of thankful rave reviews (plus fill their store orders, Indie Next lists, pre-orders and TBR lists with our selections).
Once again, Buzz Books offers over 30 books you’ll want to start reading right now. There are hot debut novels from Virginia Baily (Early One Morning), Claire Vaye Watkins (Gold, Fame, Citrus), Sloane Crosley (The Clasp), Jesse Eisenberg (Bream Gives Me Hiccups), Amy Stewart (Girl Waits with Gun), and more. Plus we include previously established novelists such as Mitch Albom, Geraldine Brooks, Lauren Groff, Chris Holm, Alice Hoffman, Janice Lee, Ron Rash, and Adriana Trigiani.
In nonfiction, BEA just announced Jane McGonigal as a speaker, and we have part of her forthcoming Superbetter — along with everything from Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir to revelations on aging by Dick Van Dyke and Dan Marshall’s memoir Home is Burning. Plus, we go way beyond the excerpts with Sarah Weinman’s extensive preview of well over 100 fall/winter books to look for.
It was just a year ago that we spun off Young Adult (and middle grade) books into their own volume and these have been viral hits. Now in its third edition, we have major authors including James Dashner (his tweet yesterday the excerpt was favorited 363 times and retweeted 114 times), Jennifer Donnelly, Patrick Ness, and Lauren Oliver, along with authors best-known for their adult books (Eleanor Herman and Cammie McGovern), and a good number of exciting debuts (Tessa Elwood, Moïra Fowley-Doyle, Aaron Hartzler, and Estelle Laure, among others). And we feature four titles you’ll find on the BEA YA and Middle Grade buzz panels (Everything Everything; Nightfall; This Raging Light; and The Thing About Jellyfish.)
Our Buzz Books are the best way to study up on and enjoy the breadth of BEA books and the season ahead — whether you go to the show or skip it — and they help spread the best of the business to fans and readers everywhere. The trade editions, complete with publicity and marketing info and click-throughs to request full galleys, are available as EPUBs through us or are downloadable from NetGalley (and Edelweiss coming soon). The consumer editions of both titles are available through all the major ebookstores, and previewable/linkable/browsable through our dedicated Buzz Books website to make them easy to share.
As always, Buzz Books are driven by the cooperation, enthusiasm and partnership with the participating authors, agents and publishers; and our ebook distribution partners at Ingram CoreSource (who also produce the limited edition printed Buzz Books that you can score at the main and YA buzz panels at BEA, and through the ABA’s White Box mailing through Lightning Source). BEA helps us highlight the samplers at the show, the team at Hilsinger-Mendelson spreads the word to the media, NetGalley helps drive thousands of downloads and hundreds of reviews through their growing community, and here at PM Robin Dellabough oversees the seamless production of this growing and complex enterprise for the mutual benefit of our participants and readers. Thanks to all, and enjoy the buzz!