In a voyage abundant in metaphors (and blessed with sunshine) publishing veterans John Oakes and Colin Robinson literally launched their new venture OR Books on a old fireboat from a pier eight blocks south of the Javits center on Sunday afternoon. The boat chugged leisurely around the south end of Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty and right past the giant Queen Mary 2 in Red Hook. From a megaphone on the top deck they hailed their “politically progressive and culturally adventurous” content paired with a “revolutionary approach to business.” In other words, they aim to sell non-returnable only and […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Little, Brown Fills In Missing Pieces of THE LINK
The publisher has announced details about their closely-guarded book set for release on May 20, THE LINK, written by biologist Colin Tudge. It focuses on what they call “the astonishing new discovery that could change everything”–a previously-secret, perfectly fossilized early primate, “older than the previously most famous primate fossil, Lucy, by an astonishing forty-four million years,” held in a vault “deep within the heart of one of the world’s leading natural history museums.” Called Ida, they say this fossil “rewrites what we’ve assumed about the earliest primate origins” and the book offers “exclusive access to the ï¬rst scientists to study […]
Secret Tapes of Late Chinese Premier Drive New Book
There’s a lot of international press for Simon & Schuster’s May release, PRISONER OF STATE: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang. As the subtitle promises, the book draws on previously-secret and little-known tapes recorded by the late Ziyang during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising (and crackdown) and smuggled out of China. The Times of London says, “So sensitive is this document, the first memoir ever to be made public by such a senior Chinese party official, that even its existence had been kept a closely guarded secret. Speculation had been rife during his nearly 16 years of house arrest […]
Little, Brown Children's Announce Fall Meyer Tie-Ins and Releases
On the one thing that’s still working for sure in the marketplace, the Stephenie Meyer franchise, Little Brown Children’s has announced plans for fall. The last book in the Twilight saga BREAKING DAWN will be released again in a “special edition” version that features an exclusive DVD of the Breaking Dawn Concert Series, a color poster, and other extras, in a “limited” one-time-only printing of one million copies. The trade paperback edition of ECLIPSE (the third in the series) will publish on August 4. The publisher also has a set of four Twilight Journals in a collectible tin for October […]
Edwards Admitted Affair Right After Running Again
The NY Daily News “obtained” a copy of Elizabeth Edwards’ book RESILIENCE, set for May 12 publication. She says John Edwards admitted his affair to her right after entering the presidential race in 2006 (almost a year before it hit the media.) “She had actually wanted him to quit the race to protect the family,” the paper says. And the she says now, “He should not have run.” Edwards’ writes “I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up” after her husband’s admission. The Daily News says that in the book she “speaks in far more detail […]
Dan Brown Ready to Save Fall
Knopf Doubleday has announced that Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL will publish September 15, with a first printing said to be five million copies. Featuring the protagonist from the Da Vinci Code, Brown’s editor Jason Kaufman says “this book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises.” Brown adds, “This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey. Weaving five years of research into the story’s twelve-hour timeframe was […]