Abrams announced the previously undisclosed title of Jeff Kinney’s fifth Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, which publishes on November 9, and The Ugly Truth will get a first printing of 5 million copies. Abrams says 35 million copies of Wimpy Kid books are in print already in the US. Last fall’s DOG DAYS had an announced four-million-copy first printing and the publisher went back to press for another 500,000 right after the release, with an estimated first-week sale in excess of 750,000 units. Kinney says in the announcement, “To me, the fifth book is the linchpin of the series. […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Briefs: LAT on ‘Future of Reading’; New Nook Gets FCC Approval; Palin Biography for Tweens Delayed; and More
Paperwork for a new edition of the Nook, codenamed Bravo Delta and CR Nook, has shown up on the FCC website (with specs and pictures withheld)The Digital Reader A front-page LAT feature hits many of the same notes on the intersection of reading, technology and digital books as did an ongoing series in the NYT last year, with the usual point-counterpoint between those who worry about people not reading enough and those who are excited by technological possibilities. LAT Zondervan is delaying publication of a Sarah Palin biography for young readers after deciding that October was not an “optimal time” […]
Briefs: 2 Million Copy First Printing for ‘The Secret’ Follow-up; Poetry a Hard Sell in E-Form; ; And More
Atria has announced a 2 million copy first printing for THE POWER, Rhonda Byrne’s follow-up to THE SECRET, which will be published next month.AP The AP also looks at why poetry has proven to be “the least adaptable to the growing e-book market”: no one’s quite certain how to figure out how to keep the integrity of a poem intact in digital formats.AP This week’s NYT trend piece: nanny lit isn’t going away, it’s just changed, “showcasing complex and imperfect nannies whose personal stories intersect with thorny larger questions about race, class, immigration and parenthood.”NYT The estate of Adrien Jacobs […]
Sotomayor Memoir to Knopf
Knopf will publish a coming-of-age memoir by Sonia Sotomayor, in which she will detail growing up in the South Bronx as an American daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants and track the events that culminated in her recent appointment as a Supreme Court Judge. “Sonia Sotomayor has lived a remarkable life and her achievements will prove an inspiration to readers around the world,” said Sonny Mehta in yesterday’s release. “Hers is a triumph of the Latino experience in America.” Knopf acquired World rights from Peter Bernstein to the still-untitled book, which will be published simultaneously in a Spanish-language edition by Vintage […]
Controversial Books: Anne Frank Novel; Supposed Diary of Former Chinese Premier
London’s Sunday Times reported on YA writer Sharon Dogar’s forthcoming ANNEXED, set for publication in September by Andersen Press in the UK (part of Random UK) and October from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the US. A novelized version of the story of Peter van Pels, whose family hid in the same building in Amsterdam as Anne Frank and her family during WWII, the catalog copy says it explores “What was it like to be forced into hiding with Anne Frank, first to hate her and then to find yourself falling in love with her?” The Times article says it includes […]
Meyer's Bree Tanner Moves Over 350K In Two Days
Little, Brown Children’s says that they sold over 350,000 copies of Stephenie Meyer’s THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER in the first 48 hours of sale in the US. They also tabulate that 15,000 people around the world have read the free online version “in its entirety.” (In 2007 her third book ECLIPSE sold an estimated 150,000 copies in its first day; in 2008 the publisher estimated first day says for BREAKING DAWN of 1.3 million copies.) Publisher Megan Tingley says in the announcement “we have every confidence that with the upcoming Eclipse movie release that Bree’s shelf life […]