Margaret Atwood may have promoted previous books remotely via the LongPen, but for her upcoming novel THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD she’ll be a little more ever-present. The Toronto Star reports Atwood will tour the U.S., Europe and Canada “using a live performance with original music, local actors and the author herself as narrator.” Toronto Star Atwood is also starting a tour blog and using Twitter, as is Joseph Finder, who launches a Twitter Book Tour today for his new thriller VANISHED, running for the next three days. Finder website And Simon & Schuster’s worldwide publication of Philippa Gregory’s THE […]
Marketing
Penguin Launches Online Videos
Penguin Group has launched a mini-site called From the Publisher’s Office that presents promotional videos in four “series” (Tarcher Talks; Penguin Storytime; YA Central; and Project Paranormal); a selection of standing audio “programs”; and online browsing samples from selected books. Most of the content “is created, written, shot, edited and produced by more than 30 Penguin Group executives and department team members who are closest to the content.” Among them, CEO David Shanks composed and performs two songs for Penguin Storytime, where his wife Liz, a former librarian, is hosting and producing a read-aloud program. Shanks tells the AP, “I […]
Harper Experiments with Promotional 2D Barcodes
Harper Children’s is testing a “viral mobile initiative” with 2D barcodes. Book browswers in a store take a picture of the codes with any smartphone and, in tandem with a free downloadable application, the code links to a web site optimized for mobile viewing. For the first book, Lauren Conrad’s LA Candy, the code connects to a video and author Q&A. Harper says the code for August’s paperback release of Freakonomics “will include exclusive content related to the book and to the fall publication of Superfreakonomics.” And Harper Teen’s new series The Amanda Project promises to “incorporate the codes to […]
Hachette Cuts Co-Op Programs
Arsen Kashkashian, head buyer of the Boulder Bookstore, reports on his blog Kash’s Book Corner that “yesterday we were informed that Hachette is eliminating” three co-op programs “that will cost many independent stores $3,000 in the upcoming year”, comprising support for newsletters ($2,000), author events ($200 to $800 per year) and their Emerging Voices program ($200), in which “we bought 10 copies of books by relatively unknown authors to earn the co-op.” Kashkashian writes: “In most businesses, $3,000 might be a fairly insignificant amount. In the bookselling world where a profit of 2% is considered stellar, it is a critical […]
NelsonFree Bundles Audio and eBook with Print Purchase
Thomas Nelson will provide buyers of selected hardcover books with access to an MP3 audiobook version and several types of ebook files (including ePub, MobiPocket and PDF) at no extra charge under their NelsonFree program. “After readers purchase a book with the NelsonFree logo, they will be directed to a website where they must register and answer a simple security question.” Once approved, they are able to download the files. The initiative will start with two late March releases,Scott McKain’s Collapse of Distinction and Michael Franzese’s I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse. The company says they will issue […]
Starbucks to Feature Actress's Memoir
Actress Isabel Gillies’s HAPPENS EVERY DAY: An All-Too-True Story, will be the next book featured in 7,000 Starbucks locations across the US. Known for playing Detective Stabler’s wife on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Gillies memoir is about “coming to terms with the collapse of her marriage.’ Starbucks will carry the book as of March 24, Scribner’s publication date. Thus far, after seven titles so far, the “Starbucks effect” remains vague. The coffee chain certainly sells plenty of copies through it own outlets, but that does not always correlate to broader trade sales. Their most successful “discovery” was clearly […]