Press Release: Simon & Schuster And TED Conferences Team Up to Co-publish 12 Book Collection

New York, N.Y. - April 8, 2014 - TED Conferences LLC and Simon & Schuster announced today that they will co-publish a boutique, 12-book collection of TED Books, with a new title released every one-to-two months, starting in September 2014. The books will be available in hardcover, e-book, and in audiobook. The co-publishing agreement is for world rights, and the books will be published by Simon & Schuster in the United States and worldwide by its companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, as well as in foreign-language editions.

TED's mission is to provide a worldwide platform for "ideas worth spreading." TED Books - which are short books of up to 20,000 words - are long enough to fully explore a powerful idea yet designed to be read in a single sitting.

Among the authors and titles to be published under this global publishing agreement are:

• Travel writer Pico Iyer, The Virtue of Stillness
• Journalist Stephen Petranek, How We'll Live on Mars
• Biologist Rob Knight, Follow Your Gut
• NewYorker.com editor Nicholas Thompson, Storytelling in the Age of Distraction
• Non-violence advocate Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist's Son: Ending a Legacy of Hate

The books will feature a signature look with cover art designed by the legendary jacket artist and TED speaker, Chip Kidd.

As of today, the more than 1,700 available TED Talk videos have been viewed nearly two billion times on TED.com and other platforms.

"TED has mastered the art of launching intelligent conversations about important ideas, and these books will provide TED speakers past and future with the opportunity to go beyond their talks and take readers deeper into their work," said Jonathan Karp, President and Publisher of the Simon & Schuster Publishing Group.

"In the eight years since we made TED Talk videos available for free online, we've seen how millions of people globally are eager to engage with new ideas," said Executive Producer of TED Media, June Cohen. "We feel fortunate to have a partner like Simon & Schuster that understands how to amplify ideas, and can provide avenues to make TED Books available around the world."

TED and Simon & Schuster will distribute the books in all available sales channels, and the books will be supported by TED's media partners and the highly-trafficked TED.com website.