The fourth and final installment in Christopher Paolini’s bestselling fantasy series for children INHERITANCE releases today. Random House Children’s has announced a first printing of 2.5 million copies, a number you don’t hear very often any more for printed books. When BRISINGR was published in September 2008, the publisher reported opening day sales of 550,000 copies in the US, and 45,000 copies in the UK. Over the weekend, Waterstone’s told the Independent that the book recorded “the biggest pre-order of a children’s title since JK Rowling’s final Harry Potter book,” with “tens of thousands of copies” sold in advance.
New Releases/Forthcoming
Announcements: Michelle Obama’s Book, Gaiman’s Audiobook Launch List,and Preparing for World Book Night
Crown said yesterday that their previously-announced April 2012 book with First Lady Michelle Obama will be called AMERICAN GROWN: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities. The $30 illustrated book will go on sale April 10. The publisher released the jacket design as well. Neil Gaiman’s previously announced audiobook imprint for Audible Neil Gaiman Presents is live today with five launch titles from Jonathan Carroll, Alina Simone, M. John Harrison, Keith Roberts, and Steven Sherrill. An additional eleven titles, all produced through Audible’s ACX service and which include introductions by Gaiman, will be released soon, with […]
Books In the Making: NYT Reads Condoleeza Rice Memoir Early; SEAL Book Presents Alternate Account of Bin Laden Death; and More
The NYT got a copy of Condoleeza Rice‘s memoir NO HIGHER HONOR a week before its November 1 publication by Crown, revealing that she clashed “repeatedly” with vice president Dick Cheney and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and “at one point even threatened to resign when she felt circumvented.” That confrontation occurred in November 2001 when she learned President George W. Bush had issued an order prepared by the White House counsel Alberto Gonzales authorizing military commissions without telling her: “If this happens again,” she told the president, “either Al Gonzales or I will have to resign.” NYT Former Seal Team […]
Reading Steve Jobs
A rash of copies of the embargoed Steve Jobs biography were purchased by news organizations yesterday, which may dampen the appeal of Fortune’s “exclusive” excerpt which is still being held for Monday. The AP recounts that he raged at one-time Apple board member Eric Schmidt in 2010 when a Google Android phone appeared with iPhone-like features. “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go […]
Cain Campaign Buys the Book
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is helping his book sales the old-fashioned way–using campaign funds to buy copies, apparently at full price. The campaign bought the books from Cain’s own independent company, THE New Voice, Inc., which sells the books at list price of $25. The $36,511 reported spent on books would buy roughly 1,450 undiscounted copies–though the amounts are a little fuzzy, since the campaign paid Cain’s company for other booklets and services as well, and keeps revising the total amounts paid. The FEC has ruled in the past that a campaign can “purchase copies of [a] book from […]
News Briefs
The Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency has acquired a number of authors for representation from Rosalie Siegel, International Agency, Inc., including the estate of William Wharton, Dennis Covington, Dana Johnson, Rev Jen and cookbook author Sudha Koul. Siegel is joining Lyons as a consultant, and has referred additional authors to the agency. Stephanie Madoff Mack’s memoir THE END OF NORMAL: A Wife’s Anguish, A Widow’s New Life, has been moved up to an October 20 pub date by Blue Rider Press (with Laurie Sandell’s Madoff book set for October 31 release). Associate publisher for Blue Rider Aileen Boyle tells us the […]