The WSJ looks at the publication path of Michael Ennis‘s forthcoming historical thriller debut THE MALICE OF FORTUNE, which Doubleday will release in September. The piece emphasizes how Ennis’ agent, Dan Lazar at Writers House, sent out dozens of copies of the novel (the WSJ said 48, but Lazar clarified to us that it was “over 60”) to booksellers by self-publishing bound galleys, with 23 of those booksellers – including Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan, Tattered Cover’s Sarah Harvey, and Jenn Northington at WORD — responding with enthusiastic blurbs. But equally important is that Ennis’s original draft, at around […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Bradbury Backlist Will Be Digitized
William Morrow editor Jennifer Brehl tells Paid Content that the publisher has been at work on the “huge undertaking” of making the late Ray Bradbury’s backlist available as ebooks. “He knew we were going to do this” and had “agreed to it,” she says, adding, “I don’t want people to think he was this dinosaur because he had some opinions” about ebooks that changed late in his life. One of Bradbury’s concerns–library availability–never changed, and she pledges that the Bradbury ebooks will be available for library lending. Apparently part of his agreement reached last year to allow an ebook edition […]
People, Etc.
Natasha Trethewey has been named the newest Poet Laureate by the US Library of Congress. NYT Philip Roth has won Spain’s Asturias Prize, given to an author “whose literary work represents a significant contribution to universal literature.” The Overlook Press will publish The Russian Library, an “ambitious one hundred and twenty five volume series of translated Russian fiction, drama, and poetry”, over the next ten years, the publisher announced Wednesday at BEA. Overlook is working with (and is sponsored by) Read Russia on the project, which will feature classic and contemporary Russian works and launch in Fall 2013 with five […]
Upcoming: Deals for Carly Simon, Dolly Parton, Cissy Houston, Biz Stone
BEA is just a few hours old — and the show floor won’t even open until Tuesday — but for now some of the biggest announcements are in the deals department. Random House Publishing Group has acquired Carly Simon‘s autobiography, which will cover “the discovery of her life-altering stammer, her meteoric rise and unparalleled career in music, and her loves, including her marriage to James Taylor, with Simon saying “after years of keeping journals and writing lyrics for my tunes, I have developed a strong interest in seeing how my life might just string together in a longer form.” In […]
Jeff Kinney’s WIMPY KID #7 Now Has A Title, First Printing of 6.5 Million
Two months after announcing a November 13 release date in seven countries for the seventh installment of Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID series, Abrams said Thursday evening the book will be titled DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE THIRD WHEEL and revealed the book’s cover. Amulet will issue a 6.5 million first printing, up from the 6 million opening print run for the sixth book in the series published last year. That book sold more than one million copies in its opening week, up 25 percent on the previous series entry.
Summer Reading Roundups From the NYT, WSJ, USAT, NPR
We may be focused on the fall season (as our Buzz eBook sampler can attest) but the largest news outlets have all unveiled their summer reading roundups in time for Memorial Day Weekend. Janet Maslin returns in the NYT with her annual survey, gently chiding the selections, including new novels by Hilary Mantel, Gillian Flynn, Colin Cotterill, Karen Thompson Walker, and G. Willow Wilson, for not being as easily categorized as they once were. The WSJ makes more of the “genre-bending” nature of this summer’s selections, highlighting Walker’s “big debut” as well as upcoming books by Megan Abbott, Tana French, […]