As reported widely on Thursday–with a full deal report at PublishersMarketplace–the lengthy auction for former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s book has concluded with Crown winning rights and aiming for a 2014 publication. How much Geithner reveals and how book buyers feel about his record will certainly weigh heavily on the book’s performance when released. In anticipation of the sale, analyst Peter Hildick-Smith at book audience research firm The Codex Group queried a survey panel of just over 5,000 recent book buyers on Geithner’s “Author Equity” for us. (We’ll be featuring some other custom Codex Group research here in the days to come.) […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Vintage Will Publish EL James’ INNER GODDESS Journal on May 1
EL James will publish a new book in 2013 after all, as Vintage announces a May 1 publication date for FIFTY SHADES OF GREY: INNER GODDESS (A Journal). The “collaboration between James and her US publisher” will be released as a “bonded-leather softcover journal” that will “offer readers and aspiring writers a place where they can record their innermost thoughts.” The book, which will have a 125,000-copy first printing, includes a foreword by James, excerpts from her FIFTY SHADES novels, writing tips, a writing playlist, and lined pages for writing.
People, Etc.
Kevin Powers won the PEN/Hemingway Award for his debut novel THE YELLOW BIRDS. He will receive his award at a ceremony at the JFK Presidential Library & Museum on March 24. In the UK, Tesco has hired Gavin Sathianathan to head their ebook portion of their blinkbox digital media offer, to launch later this year. Tesco had purchased Mobcast last September as the foundation of their ebook program. They will offer digital books, music and movies under the blinkbox name. Currently working at Facebook, Sathianathan had worked as an intern at the previous incarnation of blinkbox (a streaming video company). […]
Imprints: Little Brown UK Tries Literary Digital Line; Atria Reannounces Rachael Ray Books
Little Brown UK is expanding their digital imprints (which include Crime Vault and Piatkus Entice) with a line focused on literary fiction, Blackfriars. It launches in July and aims to publish nine to 12 titles a year, under the direction of Abacus publishing director Clare Smith and Virago associated publisher Ursula Doyle. One of their first titles is Benjamin Anastas’s memoir TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, which received some good reviews in the US, but suffered under the limitations of Amazon Publishing. (Ironically, in the UK Amazon still has overwhelming market share for ebooks, so they will still be the primary outlet […]
Briefs: A Cover of Inferno; Audible Updates iOS Apps; Anthology to Close
Doubleday unveiled the cover of Dan Brown‘s May 14 release Inferno on the Today Show this morning. ‘”Inferno takes place in Italy and was inspired by Dante’s iconic 14th century poem of the same name. The cover features a portrait of Dante against the city of Florence, as well as Dante’s famous nine rings of hell.” Apparently Audible has not had a dedicated app for Apple’s iPad line, even though “more than 20 percent of Audible customers already use Audible’s iPhone app on the iPad. They have addressed that with the release of a new app optimized for iPads, and […]
Buzz Builds for Winter Institute Titles, As Two “Life After Life” Novels Share April Indie Next No. 1 Honors
The American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next List for April will name two books with the same title as the shared No. 1 pick: LIFE AFTER LIFE — both Kate Atkinson’s novel, publishing April 2 from Reagan Arthur Books, and Jill McCorkle’s novel of the same name, coming from Algonquin on March 26. The ABA says this is the first time two books have shared the No. 1 slot (let alone two books with the same title). “The reason is that they had an equal amount of support from the indie booksellers.” In a preview of the ABA’s Winter Institute, starting […]