This is Grove’s month for poetry: first their author Kay Ryan is named the new poet laureate, and now something really big: lead character on the celebrated show Mad Men Don Draper buys and reads Frank O’Hara’s poetry collection Meditations in an Emergency. He mails the book with a note to an unknown person and reads aloud a passage from the poem “Mayakovsky” during a montage sequence. All good enough to pop the book to No. 159 at Amazon–where it is now out of stock–and produce a number of print mentions. (In the first season, Draper was also seen reading […]
Marketing
Salem Celebrates Lace Reader
With William Morrow’s edition of Brunonia Barry’s THE LACE READER publishing today, the folks in Salem, MA are enjoying the attention. “Morrow is working with Salem’s tourism agency, local merchants, and historic sites to promote the book, which is set here, and the city at the same time. While Salem hopes The Lace Reader will draw tourists to town, author and publisher hope the city’s attractions will bolster the book.” Director of the tourism bureau Kate Fox says, “It has been the greatest thing to fall into Salem’s lap, for promotion and marketing.” The author suggested the marketing partnership. And […]
Stephen King Short Story in Short Online Videos
Take Stephen King’s previously unpublished story N., about “a psychiatrist who becomes the victim of the same mysterious and deadly obsession as his patient,” set for inclusion in his new book of stories JUST AFTER SUNSET publishing this November and then turning into a Marvel comic book series in 2009. Turn it into a series of 25 two-minute video episodes. Starting on Monday, release a new one every weekday for five weeks. Add multiple viewing and payment options: Free to mobile users through the largest cell-phone companies; through an embedded Flash player that updates automatically; and through CBS’s various online […]
More Free: Pinter, Friedman, and Tor
Through August 5, author Jason Pinter is offering visitors to his web site free online access to the first book in his Henry Parker series, THE MARK. (The third in the series publishes at the end of July.) In an additional twist, Pinter offers to thank in the acknowledgements of next year’s book any fan who links to the free offer, posts the widget or e-mails five friends and notifies Pinter. I guess we just qualified.Pinter blog Separately, starting a few days ago, Thomas Friedman has been offering a free audiobook giveaway of THE WORLD IS FLAT from his web […]
At CBA Show, Zondervan Introduces Download-by-Card
The Tamba Bay newspaper covers the CBA’s International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, with approximately 7,000 attendees (and no exhibit from Thomas Nelson). Non-book merchandise captures the paper’s attention more than books, including everything from “a Christian version of the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game to ‘witness wear’ clothing and skateboard art that proclaim faith in bold cultural statements.” With Nelson’s absence, the show appears to be in serious decline, with numbers well below the approximately 9,250 attendees recorded the two previous years. (Even that number is well below the show’s high-water-mark of almost 15,000 attendees from 1999.) Publisher […]
Knopf's Discreet Roman a Clef
Kathryn Walker’s forthcoming debut novel A STOPOVER IN VENICE, “about a young woman who leaves her husband, a famous musician, and their unhappy marriage for an adventure in Venice” features characters with similarities to her ex-husband James Taylor–along with Carly Simon, Jason Robards (an old friend of the author) and co-founder of the National Lampoon Douglas Kenney (the author’s boyfriend at one point). But none of this connections are even hinted at in the author’s bio or the presentation of the book, as the NYT notes. “So why isn’t Knopf doing some name-dropping to give the book a promotional boost? […]