The New York Times
July 19, 2012
So just how hungry are fans for The Hunger Games? Ravenous, it seems. Suzanne Collins' popular YA book trilogy, which spawned the juggernaut $680 million–grossing Jennifer Lawrence blockbuster, has now passed a major publishing milestone, putting in track to become one of the top—if not the top—best sellers of 2012. So just how many books has it sold? According to its publisher, Scholastic, the trilogy has now sold over 50 million copies in both print and digital formats. To put that in perspective, the books have more than doubled in sales since the beginning of 2012 when there were
July 13, 2012
This weekly feature examines certain ebooks’ paths to bestseller-dom, and highlights bestselling titles that are selling more copies in digital than in print. Slammed by Colleen Hoover Hoover’s first book, Slammed, is self-published and hits the NYT ebook fiction bestseller list this week at #13. The young adult romance tells the story of an 18-year-old girl, Layken, whose family has to move across the country after her father’s death. When Layken meets her new neighbor, Will, romance and challenges ensue. Hoover tells me, “I hadn’t written anything in the past ten years until December [2011], when I got the idea for
July 12, 2012
How I love author parties!
According to what I read in The New York Times this morning, it looks like there was quite a splash of a party this past Monday night to celebrate Kurt Andersen’s new book, “True Believers” (unfortunately the book was given a less-than-stellar review by Janet Maslin elsewhere in the paper).
I’ll never forget my first author party when I was a young editor just starting out at Ballantine Books. Ok, since you asked, I’ll tell you about it.
July 12, 2012
CafePress Inc. (PRSS), The World's Customization Engine, has partnered with publisher Penguin Group (USA) to launch a new online store featuring a curated selection of products showcasing more than 80 years of stories that have sparked young readers' imaginations. Whether it's Corduroy's unplanned adventures, Froggy's continual mishaps or Ladybug Girl's endless imagination, children love todevour anything and everything about their favorite fictional characters.
July 11, 2012
Hoping to capitalize on the frenzy over Y.A. book sensations like The Hunger Games and Twilight, publishers are returning to their design departments and asking for new teen-friendly looks for classic high school staples like Emma, Jane Eyre, and even Shakespeare, according to The New York Times' Julie Bosman.
This only makes sense knowing what we do of the publishing business: When there's a big hit, others flock to follow it, whether that means writers rushing to create similarly themed works, agents hoping to snag their own dystopian success stories,
July 11, 2012
The legend of Woody Guthrie as folk singer is firmly etched in America’s collective consciousness. Compositions like “Deportee,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “Pretty Boy Floyd” have become national treasures akin to Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack” and Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” But Guthrie, who would have been 100 years old on July 14, was also a brilliant and distinctive prose stylist, whose writing is distinguished by a homespun authenticity, deep-seated purpose and remarkable ear for dialect.
July 11, 2012
A recent New York Times article examined the trend among some publishers to repackage classic books like Emma and Jane Eyre with provocatively modern jackets designed to grab the attention of teenager readers devoted to Twilight‘s Edward and Bella, or The Hunger Games’ Katniss and Peeta.
One cover features a stubble-faced Romeo clad in a tight white tank-top; another proclaims Wuthering Heights is “Bella & Edward’s favorite book.” At a Barnes & Noble in New York City, four new editions of novels by Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters were displayed alongside best-selling contemporary paranormal romances.
July 2, 2012
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced that A City of Bones from Cassandra Clares’ Mortal Instruments series, will be featured as the latest pick for “Barnes & Noble Spotlight” (www.bn.com/spotlight), a NOOK Book™ program that features great writers at irresistible prices. Twice a month, Barnes & Noble Spotlight picks an author of a popular or breakout series from various genres and offers one of their titles at a special price, helping NOOK® readers discover new authors and dive into an exciting series for a wallet-friendly price. From June 30 through July 13, Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Bookstore will offer City of Bones, from the bestselling Mortal Instruments series, for only 99 cents.
July 1, 2012
Based on the series “The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” by New York Times best-selling YA author Heather Brewer, High School Bites allows users to enter into the blood-sucking world of Vladimir Tod, Brewer’s hero whose human mother and vampire father perished in a fire. Special features of High School Bites include two different ways to play—either swiping the screen or tilting the device—and three different levels of difficulty, which users can increase as they progress.
June 13, 2012
In college I had a class called Absurdist Literature and we read Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. The day we discussed it, one of my classmates related the story of how he was reading it while a passenger in a car, and that he became so frustrated with the book he threw it out window. I wonder, now that Pynchon has allowed his work to cross the digital divide, whether having it as an ebook would decrease the likelihood of this type of thing happening
