News
News archive
January 2011
Sphere buys Tina Fey memoir
Sphere has acquired the autobiography of US comedy star Tina Fey, with editor-in-chief Antonia Hodgson acquiring British Commonwealth (incl. Australia and New Zealand) rights.
Hodgson bought the rights to the title, Bossypants, from Hachette US, where it will be published by Reagan Arthur Book, part of Little, Brown.
Hodgson said: "We are so proud to be publishing Tina Fey—one of the smartest, funniest and most perceptive writers in the world."
The book will tell Fey's life story so far, charting her life from her days as a "vicious nerd" at school to her time on US satirical show "Saturday Night Live" and the creation of New York-set sitcom "30 Rock".
Sphere will publish on 7th April as a £16.99 hardback.
News item posted on 28-Jan-2011
Kindle sales reaching 80% of physical sales, DBW told
Kindle sales of a book could be as much as 80% of its physical sales, Amazon's head of Kindle content told Digital Book World.
Russ Grandinetti's speech, 'To Help Publishers Optimize E-book Sales', coincided with the launch of Kindle Singles on Amazon's Kindle store. The singles are 5,000-30,000 'killer idea' pieces from the likes of bestselling authors like Jodi Picoult as well as academics and journalists. They are priced between 99 cents and $4.99.
Speaking during the final afternoon of Digital Book World, Grandinetti said it was “not uncommon” for Kindle sales “to be 20-30-40-50-80% of a BookScan number” in 2010. Several executives from major houses later said that especially for their biggest Christmas titles, they could confirm seeing this trend borne out. Grandinetti added: “However fast you think change is happening, it’s happening faster than you think.”
While Amazon has been cagey about its data, customers bought 3.3 times more books in the 12 months after buying a Kindle. He also discussed the effect of agency pricing on titles, referring to 12 week sales of James Patterson's Jack and Jill pre-and-post agency pricing. He said: "There was a 48% drop in units with the $2 increase in price."
Grandinetti stressed the importance of pricing but also highlighted that books were not just competing against other titles, but other media like gaming and films.
He added with the spread of Kindle and the tremendous linguistic currency of English in non-native markets, the opportunities in providing access to English-language content to customers all over the world cannot be underestimated.
He also reiterated the importance for publishers to have a full digital catalogue available. "Print and digital units are going faster for publishers who have more titles up in e-books...Frontlist drives backlist. You need to have an author’s backlist up when a new book comes out."
Print on demand was increasingly important to Amazon, Grandinetti said. He urged publishers to consider it for a greater proportion of their catalogue. He said publishers sales will suffer without the safety net of print on demand if a book is out of stock.
News item posted on 28-Jan-2011
S&S finds Girl, Missing follow-up
Simon & Schuster Children's Books has signed up the sequel to debut bestseller Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie in a high five-figure deal.
Editorial director Venetia Gosling bought UK and Commonwealth rights including e-book rights to the follow-up, called Sister, Missing, from Rosemary Canter and Jodie Marsh at United Agents.
Sister, Missing will be published in hardcover in October 2011—McKenzie's first hardcover launch, with a "high profile" marketing and publicity campaign and national author tour planned—with the paperback to follow in summer 2012.
The title will take up the story of Lauren two years after the events of Girl, Missing, just as Lauren's youngest birth sister is kidnapped, in circumstances which are extremely similar to those in which Lauren was taken.
Gosling said: "I'm very excited to be publishing the sequel to Girl, Missing—a book I have been pestering Sophie to write for a very long time! I know that, like me, there will be legions of her fans desperate to read this long-awaited instalment and we look forward to making it an even bigger hit than her hugely successful debut novel."
McKenzie has publlished 14 children's books, including the Medusa Project series and the Luke & Eve trilogy. Girl, Missing was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2008.
News item posted on 27-Jan-2011
2011 Indie Awards Shortlist announced!
Australia’s independent booksellers are pleased to announce the shortlist for the Indie Awards 2011, recognizing their favourite Australian authors from the past 12 months.
The 16 shortlisted books will be vying for the top spot as the Indie Book of the Year Award 2011. Panels of expert judges (all avid readers and indie booksellers) choose winners from four book categories – Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-Fiction and Children’s. Independent booksellers from around the country will then vote to select the much acclaimed Indie Book of the Year title. The category winners and the overall Book of the Year winner will be revealed on Monday 14th March 2011
News item posted on 27-Jan-2011
Top 50 borrowed from UK Libraries
Nielsen Bookscan has reported that Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol was the most loaned book in 2010 in the UK. Thrillers dominate the top of the list. Nielsen estimates that the top 1,000 most-loaned library books were checked out more than 40m times in 2010.
Below are the titles in order and the number of times they were loaned.
1 The Lost Symbol Brown, Dan 183,000
2 Gone Tomorrow Child, Lee 149,000
3 61 Hours Child, Lee 141,000
4 I, Alex Cross Patterson, James 139,000
5 Wolf Hall Mantel, Hilary 134,000
6 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest Larsson, Stieg 133,000
7 Silent Scream La Plante, Lynda 128,000
8 8th Confession Patterson, James 128,000
9 The Return Journey Binchy, Maeve 128,000
10 The Complaints Rankin, Ian 127,000
11 Hard Girls Cole, Martina 127,000
12 Run for Your Life Patterson, James 127,000
13 Swimsuit Patterson, James 125,000
14 Cross Country Patterson, James 124,000
15 The Associate Grisham, John 122,000
16 206 Bones Reichs, Kathy 122,000
17 Nine Dragons Connelly, Michael 122,000
18 The Girl Who Played with Fire Larsson, Stieg 122,000
19 Long Lost Coben, Harlan 121,000
20 The Scarecrow Connelly, Michael 114,000
21 In Time for Christmas Flynn, Katie 114,000
22 Doors Open Rankin, Ian 113,000
23 Heart and Soul Binchy, Maeve 112,000
24 Sail Patterson, James 110,000
25 The White Queen Gregory, Philippa 110,000
26 Girl Missing Gerritsen, Tess 110,000
27 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Larsson, Stieg 109,000
28 The Fever of the Bone McDermid, Val 108,000
29 Play Dead Coben, Harlan 107,000
30 Keeping the Dead Gerritsen, Tess 107,000
31 Twenties Girl Kinsella, Sophie 107,000
32 Aliens Love Underpants! Freedman, Claire 107,000
33 The Bodies Left Behind Deaver, Jeffery 106,000
34 Picture Perfect Picoult, Jodi 106,000
35 Born Bad Cox, Josephine 104,000
36 Paths of Glory Archer, Jeffrey 103,000
37 The Gruffalo Donaldson, Julia 102,000
38 Found Wanting Goddard, Robert 101,000
39 Stolen Pearse, Lesley 101,000
40 It's the Little Things James, Erica 101,000
41 Genesis Slaughter, Karin 100,000
42 All the Colours of Darkness Robinson, Peter 100,000
43 The Price of Love Robinson, Peter 100,000
44 First Family Baldacci, David 99,000
45 The Scarpetta Factor Cornwell, Patricia 99,000
46 Worst Case Patterson, James 99,000
47 The Front Cornwell, Patricia 99,000
48 The Brass Verdict Connelly, Michael 99,000
49 Bloodline Billingham, Mark 98,000
50 Folly Titchmarsh, Alan 98,000
News item posted on 25-Jan-2011
Bloomsbury buys verse book for children
Bloomsbury has acquired a debut novel for 11+ readers, written in verse form by British author Sarah Crossan. Commissioning editor Ele Fountain bought world English rights from Julia Churchill at The Greenhouse Literary Agency.
She said: "The Weight of Water is a startlingly original piece of fiction for 11+ readers; most simply a coming of age story, it also tackles head-on the alienation experienced by many young immigrants. Moving, unsentimental, and utterly page turning, we meet and share the experiences of a remarkable girl who shows us how quiet courage prevails."T
The story tells of Polish girl Kasienka, who is brought to the UK by her mother to search for her absent father.
Sarah Crossan completed her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in 2003, and last year received an Edward Albee Fellowship, spending the summer in New York completing this novel.
News item posted on 21-Jan-2011
iPad and Kindle dominate e-book reading
Apple has the dominat share of the tablet market, but Amazon is the clear leader in the e-reader market, according to a new report by IDC.
Separately, Apple has reported that it sold 7.3 million iPads in the quarter ended 25th December, up from 4.2m in the previous quarter. It has now sold about 14m devices.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and e-reader Tracker, suppliers shipped 4.8m tablets globally in the third-quarter of 2010, compared to 3.3m units in the second quarter of 2010, with Apple's iPad representing nearly 90% of the media tablets shipped worldwide. Meanwhile, the third quarter of 2010 saw global e-reader shipments increase to 2.7m units representing 40% growth over the second quarter, with the US representing nearly three-quarters of the worldwide e-reader market.
According to IDC, while the iPad is dominating the tablet market, Amazon's Kindle was the market leader with a 41.5% market share, ahead of Pandigital (16.1%), and Barnes and Noble (15.4%). Sony was in fourth place with a market share of 8.4%.
IDC anticipates 2010 to close at 10.8m units shipped worldwide, with the US representing 72.4% of global shipments, and forecasts 14.7m units to ship in 2011 and 16.6m in 2012. But these numbers will be dwarfed by tablets, with IDC expecting the media tablet market to finish 2010 at nearly 17m units, and forecasts 44.6m will ship in 2011.
News item posted on 21-Jan-2011
The Bookseller launches site to oppose library closures
The Bookseller has launched a campaign to oppose the "wantonly destructive cuts to the national library service".
Called 'Fight for Libraries', the campaign will be centred around a Facebook site where news about library cuts and opposition to them will be reported, and which will also function as a hub for all news, sites and information on the struggle against library cuts. The site will operate from http://bit.ly/fight4libraries and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fight4libraries
"The next few weeks are critical to the future of libraries in this country, and to the literary culture they help support. Up to 800 libraries are faxed with the axe in the coming days. The Government backed-down over Booktrust over Christmas, and its watering down of tuition fees, shows that it is not immune to pressure, whilst history has shown that local councils will back down on library closures once they realise the depth of local opposition. I don't think David Cameron wants to be remembered as the Prime Minister who closed down all the libraries," says editor-in-chief of The Bookseller Neill Denny.
The Facebook site hosts a manifesto and a set of demands, with The Bookseller supporting the calls for a national public enquiry into the library service, demanding a halt to the unfair and disproportionate targeting of libraries for cuts, and calling for the 1964 Libraries Act to be observed in letter and spirit. It also has a poll asking people to commit to supporting libraries.
"Libraries are under threat right now. A library lost today will not be re-opened tomorrow - the book trade has to take a stand," added Denny. "Please use the site to see what is going on and update it with developments in your own area. We'd like you to engage with our Facebook page, let us know who you are, give us your views and post useful links. Our campaign can offer a focal point for all interested parties and thereby form a stronger voice together."
News item posted on 21-Jan-2011
S&S buys memoir of woman forced to give up her baby
Simon & Schuster UK has secured the rights for a memoir about a young woman forced to give her baby up for adoption in 1962.
Kerri Sharp, senior commissioning editor of non-fiction, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights to the book from Ben Mason at Fox Mason for an undisclosed fee.
In The Baby Laundry for Unmarried Mothers, Angela Patrick recounts her experience as a young woman sent to a Catholic home for those who become pregnant out of wedlock. Her son was taken away from her at birth and put up for adoption, with the two only reunited 30 years later.
The book will be published as a paperback original in spring 2012. Mason said the story was “a real eye-opener...[like 2002 film] the Magdalene Sisters set in north east London but with a happy ending".
News item posted on 20-Jan-2011
McEwan to be presented with Jerusalem Prize
Atonement author Ian McEwan is to be awarded the 2011 Jerusalem Prize, Israel's most prominent literary honour for foreign writers.
The Jerusalem Prize is awarded biennially to an author whose work best expresses the idea of "freedom of the individual in society". The "modest" monetary value of the prize money, $10,000, is intended to reflect its symbolic nature.
The jury said: "McEwan’s protagonists struggle for their right to give personal expression to their ideas, and to live according to those ideas in an environment of political and social turmoil.
"His obvious affection for them, and the compelling manner in which he describes their struggle, make him one of the most important writers of our time."
McEwan will receive the award on 20th February, the opening evening of the 25th Jerusalem International Book Fair.
Previous recipients of the prize include Bertrand Russell, Simone de Beauvoir, Arthur Miller and Haruki Murakami.
News item posted on 20-Jan-2011
Angry Robot buys apocalyptic trilogy
Angry Robot has bought a new series of apocalyptic science fiction novels by Peter Crowther, publisher at genre fiction house PS Publishing.
Publishing director Marc Gascoigne bought world rights to the Forever Twilight trilogy from Ian Drury at Sheil Land. The first book in the trilogy, Darkness Falling, will be published internationally in October 2011, with subsequent volumes to follow in 2012 and spring 2013.
The novels are about a blinding light engulfing Earth and the effect it has on humanity.
Gascoigne said: "It’s wonderful that we’re able to share a little-known secret about Peter Crowther – that as well as being an acclaimed publisher he’s a damn fine novelist too. Reading Darkness Falling gave me the same thrills I’ve got from recent Stephen King novels and Justin Cronin’s The Passage, and that was it – I decided we just had to have this dystopian masterpiece for Angry Robot."
News item posted on 19-Jan-2011
Hodder reveals new Bond title
The first James Bond novel to be written by Jeffery Deaver is to be titled Carte Blanche, with a release date of 26th May 2011.
The Hodder title was revealed today [17th January] at a launch event in Dubai, where part of the novel is set. The jacket was also unveiled, and shows smoke rising on a white backdrop.
Deaver said: "In the world of espionage, giving an agent carte blanche on a mission comes with an enormous amount of trust and constantly tests both personal and professional judgement. Part of the nonstop suspense in the novel is the looming question of what is acceptable in matters of national and international security.
"Are there lines that even James Bond should not cross?"
Unlike Sebastian Faulks' Bond novel Devil May Care, publisher Penguin's fastest-selling adult novel, Carte Blanche will be set in the present day, including an updated version of Fleming's favourite car, a Bentley Continental GT.
The £18.99 hardback will also be available from Hodder as audio and e-books simultaneously, with r.r.p. not yet fixed. Deaver will speak about the novel at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature tomorrow [18th January].
News item posted on 18-Jan-2011
Horowitz to write Holmes mystery for Orion
Orion is to publish a new full-length Sherlock Holmes novel, written by Alex Rider author Anthony Horowitz, after he was selected by the Conan Doyle Estate.
Jon Wood, deputy group publisher, acquired world rights to the as-yet-unnamed title through Robert Kirby of United Agents.
Further details about the title, to be published in September, are still to be revealed, though it will be "a brilliant mystery novel, stripped back to the original style of Conan Doyle", according to the
publisher.
Wood said: "We are incredibly excited by what an author of Anthony's quality and Sherlock-ian expertise can bring to the greatest of all British detectives. The combination of his passion for Holmes and his consummate narrative trickery will ensure that this new story will not only blow away Conan Doyle aficionados but also bring the sleuth to a whole new audience."
It is the first time the Conan Doyle Estate has given its approval for a new Holmes novel. Kirby said: "When I discussed with the surviving relatives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who we felt Sir Arthur would choose to write an authorised new Sherlock Holmes novel we came up with a shortlist of only one name, Anthony Horowitz.
"We're thrilled Anthony has agreed and look forward to this must-read global publishing event this autumn."
Horowitz said: "I fell in love with the Sherlock Holmes stories when I was 16 and I've read them many times since. I simply couldn't resist this opportunity to write a brand new adventure for this iconic figure and my aim is to produce a first rate mystery for a modern audience while remaining
absolutely true to the spirit of the original."
News item posted on 18-Jan-2011
Aussie schools unite with SchoolAid to ease flooding pain
As parents, teachers and students prepare for anothers chool year, Australian schools are being urged to unite with SchoolAid to support its Floods Relief Appeal and take part in a National Relief Appeal Day observing a minute's silence and donating gold coins.
SchoolAid demonstrated its strength as a leader in schools fundraising when it rallied schools across the nation in 2009 to support its Victorian Bushfire Appeal raising close to $1 million and subsequently the organisation distributed these funds to schools and organisations supporting the recovery process for children.
SchoolAid Founder, Sean Gordon says "it’s time to do it again, the kids being impacted by these devastating floods need our support – as a Queenslander, I am witnessing first hand the scale of this disaster, but my experience with SchoolAid tells me that we can make a difference."
News item posted on 17-Jan-2011
Literary bonanza for the big screen
With “The King’s Speech” already longlisted for a Bafta, 2011 looks set to be a bumper year for literary adaptations.
There is a wealth of film titles coming throughout the year including “Never Let Me Go”, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “One Day”. Older titles, “Brighton Rock”, “The Woman in Black” and new adaptations of “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights” will also hit the screens.
The films are evidently a fillip to publishers of the original novels, particularly those with tie-ins, with The Lovely Bones, An Education and A Single Man three titles boosted last year.
Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Warhorse, some of which was shot on Dartmoor, has already sparked “a huge amount of interest,” said Pat Abrehart, manager of the Harbour Bookshop in Kingsbridge, Devon. Further films in the works include Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (Canongate), Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (Picador), true story The Monster of Florence (Virgin Books), and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Penguin).
News item posted on 17-Jan-2011
Nora Roberts passes 1m Kindle sales
Nora Roberts has become the third author to sell more than one million e-books through Amazon's Kindle store.
Roberts, who is published in the UK by Piatkus, joins Stieg Larsson and James Patterson in the Kindle Million Club.
Russ Grandinetti, vice-president of Kindle Content, said: "Nora Roberts has been a bestseller at Amazon for 15 years so this accomplishment is no surprise."
According to the retailer, Roberts sold 1,170,539 Kindle books under her name and her pseudonym J D Robb by Tuesday [11th January].
News item posted on 14-Jan-2011
Catcher 'sequel' banned in US, available elsewhere
An unauthorised sequel to J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been blocked from US release after months of legal wrangling, although international publication can still go ahead.
Swedish author Fredrick Colting’s 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye was banned from US publication in July 2009, but in May 2010 an appeal was given the go-ahead.
A settlement agreement was signed in early December, states that Colting has agreed not to publish or otherwise distribute the book, e-book or any other editions, in the US or Canada.
However, according to Publishers Weekly, the agreement does not prevent Colting from selling the title in other international territories, with a source close to PW revealing that rights have already been sold in six.
Colting told PW: "We've come to an agreement with the Salinger trust but I'm afraid I can't go into any specifics. Let's just say that the book will be published in a number of countries this year and I'm very pleased with that."
The title was published in the UK by Windupbird Publishing and self-published in Sweden. Colting, who wrote under, the pseudonym John David California, was sued by the famously reclusive Salinger and his estate for copyright infringment, but claimed that the title was a legally permissable commentary and parody of The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger died in January last year.
News item posted on 13-Jan-2011
Hanvon brings world's first color E Ink reader
Hanvon is aiming to fill the chasm between monochromatic e-readers and color LCD-based tablets at CES this year with its all-new colour e-reader.
It features the famed 9.7inch color E Ink Panel , the first of its kind, and offers the rather spectacular resolution of 1200 x 1600. We managed to spend a few precious moments with a prototype unit and were impressed by the solid and thin construction and the excellent viewing angles on offer. Sadly, there's plenty of bad news here too: the E920's colors are muted and not really on par with what you'd expect from even a mediocre LCD, refresh rates are pretty glacial, and the touchscreen functionality is of the resistive kind, meaning you'll have to resort to using the integrated stylus for navigation.
News item posted on 12-Jan-2011
Trent Jamieson to Angry Robot
Science fiction and fantasy publisher Angry Robot has bought two books from Australian fantasy author Trent Jamieson. Publishing director Marc Gascoigne arranged the deal with agent Sophie Hamley for an undisclosed sum, with rights secured for the UK and US in paperback, e-book and audiobook formats.
Roil, the first book in Jamieson's new steampunk fantasy series, will be published in September 2011. It focuses on a dying land of decaying clockwork technology that is being devoured by a great rift in reality known as the Roil, and is filled with monsters with strange names like Vergers, Quarg Hounds, and Hideous Garment Flutes. The second book in the series, Night's Engines, is due in late Spring 2012.
Jamieson said: "Angry Robot have been publishing some bloody excellent books in the last couple of years, so I'm thrilled to be part of their list. Roil and Night's Engines take me in some rather different directions to anything I've done before."
News item posted on 12-Jan-2011
Lurhmann shocks with Gatsby to be 3D
Baz Luhrmann is considering shooting The Great Gatsby in 3D.
The Australian director raised the prospect of using the new format for his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic jazz-age novel during a panel on technology in Hollywood at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Praising the new format, Luhrmann said he has workshopped the movie, which will star Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, in 3D.
News item posted on 12-Jan-2011
Edmund De Waal Wins Costa Book Awards
De Waal told the Guardian , "I am completely overwhelmed. When I wrote the book I had no expectation that anyone but my family would read it so the idea of it winning this prize is completely out of anything I could have expected. I really thought I'd be back making my pots by now, my life has been cheerfully derailed by all of this."
News item posted on 11-Jan-2011
WikiLeaks founder memoir set for April release
Canongate has confirmed it will publish the memoir of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in April.
The publisher bought world rights, excluding North America, to the title from Caroline Michel at PFD. The deal is believed to be for $1.5m. Assange previously said he wrote the book to keep Wikileaks afloat and defend himself from allegations of sexual assault. He told the Sunday Times last month: "I don’t want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."
News item posted on 11-Jan-2011
Australians to Pay or Not to Pay
We want to know what you think. Australians don't pay GST on books purchased from overseas online bookshops. Should overseas online booksellers be required to charge GST on books puchased so as to provide Australian bookshops with a level playing field? What would you like Australian bookshops to do to encourage you to support them? Let us know what you think!
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News item posted on 06-Jan-2011