The Observer looks at why Graywolf decided to sell paperback rights to Salvatore Scibona’s National Book Award-nominated novel THE END to Riverhead (as reported on our Deals page last week). Director of publicity Mary Matze says, “We felt like if he doesn’t win, then Riverhead is probably going to be the best home for him and for this book in the long term, and if he does win, we still have a good deal worked out with Riverhead, though of course it would have been more beneficial for us to keep the paperback rights. Even in that case, a publisher […]
Awards
NBCC Lists Again
About a year ago the NBCC started what was going to be a monthly Best Recommended List, which shortly thereafter turned into a seasonal list of Good Reads and then went dormant after spring recommendations. Now they return with a revamped NBCC Reads for fall. The new plan is not so much recommendations about new books as an online English class: “Three times a year, we will pose a question to this group. The results will be posted here at Critical Mass. We will no longer tabulate votes or rank the titles under discussion. Instead, we will simply give an […]
Whiting Winners
This year’s Whiting Awards, worth $50,000 each, for “writers of exceptional talent and promise in early career,” have gone to: Mischa Berlinski, fictionRick Hilles, poetryDonovan Hohn, nonfictionDouglas Kearney, poetryLaleh Khadivi, fictionManuel Munoz, fictionDael Orlandersmith, playsBenjamin Percy, fictionJulie Sheehan, poetryLysley Tenorio, fiction
Another Nobel Tie-In
Norton will have a “greatly expanded and revised edition” of recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics Paul Krugman’s 1999 book THE RETURN OF DEPRESSION ECONOMICS AND THE CRISIS OF 2008 ready to publish in early December 2008. The original book looked at economic crises in Asia and Latin America, but the new edition “will show how depression economics has come to America” and indicate “the steps that must be taken to contain the crisis and turn around a world economy sliding into a deep recession.” A paperback version of his most recent book, The Conscience of a Liberal, […]
UK Looks for Books Worth Talking About
In advance of next March’s World Book Day, the organizers have posted a list of 50 UK books and invited readers to vote for “the best book to talk about.” A top ten will be culled in January, the winner receives both promotion and a cash prize.Telegraph item
Starbucks Will Co-Publish New Pick with FSG
Starbucks has picked the book they will feature in their stores this holiday season–Daren Simkin’s THE TRAVELER, illustrated by brother Daniel Simkin–and for the first time, the coffee company is co-publishing the book instead of just buying copies from the publisher. Their partner is Farrar, Straus, which has had the book in their catalog, though without noting the Starbucks association, which was saved for the announcement. But Starbucks got the first look at the book, and FSG was enlisted as a partner thereafter. Bill Clegg at the William Morris Agency, which helps scout properties for Starbucks, says that the agency […]