Vintage Books

Old Book, New Look: Why the Classics Are Flying Off the Shelves
September 22, 2016 at 11:50 am

Imagine you have a sudden burning desire to read David Copperfield, Charles Dickens’s favourite of all his novels. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, you could read it for nothing online but, correctly reasoning that it would be tedious to scroll through 600 pages on a screen, you go to a bookshop. There you find that David…

Donald Antrim, Karen Russell Win 'Genius Grant' Awards
September 27, 2013

Authors Karen Russell and Donald Antrim are among announced Wednesday morning (though the news leaked on Tuesday evening). The $625,000 grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation are awarded annually, with no strings attached, to "talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." The foundation that Antrim's "fiction and nonfiction are marked by a contrast between elegant, concise language and the disorienting chaos in which his characters find themselves. 

Fifty Shades author E L James to release new DIY book on how to write 'mummy porn'
March 11, 2013

She is the undisputed queen of 'mummy porn' - her erotic tales of romance and bondage having both titillated and inspired millions of housewives across the world. And now Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James is to release a new book called 'Inner Goddess'. But fans dying to once again dive into her steamy world of sexual desire are this time going to have to do it themselves... because this one is a DIY guide on how to write.

The Book Shows Go On: Everything you need to know about book production and design awards and shows in 2013
March 6, 2013

The six major annual book design shows listed above continue to anchor our industry in its traditions of craft, even though painfully unadorned ebooks and cluttered multimedia platforms proceed apace, charting their own course. Whatever the wide range of book show presenting criteria, as shown in the survey that follows, ultimately the purpose of book design is to enhance the readability and message of the book itself. 

Print will survive and thrive in those areas where it continues to fulfill that purpose. Where digital media prevail, irrepressible design aspirations will soon follow.

While some shows are beginning to provide digital edition categories (mostly fixed format and multi-media), print editions continue to be foundational platforms for book design and organization — at least for the time being. Leading edge designers are exploring ways to bring design criteria into the reflowable formats.

Murakami diary app from Vintage
January 10, 2013

 Vintage Books and Aimer Media have released a Haruki Murakami diary app containing six new exclusive short stories by the Japanese author, as well as a selection of quotations from his 13 backlist titles and latest novel, 1Q84.

The app, for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, is priced £1.99. Other material and features include the cover artwork from the author's newly-designed backlist, the ability to add, organise and delete events quickly and easily, share favourite quotes via email and social media, and access to iBooks without leaving the app…

E L James's "Fifty Shades" to be Published in Hardcover by Doubleday January 29
January 10, 2013

E L James blockbuster bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy will be published by Doubleday in hardcover editions for the first time on January 29. Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed will have a combined initial printing of 200,000 copies, and will be widely available in independent and chain bookstores, department and wholesale stores, as well as online.

Penguin profits slump, ebook revenues up 33%
July 27, 2012

Profits at the book publisher Penguin slumped by almost 50% in the first six months, thanks in part to the runaway global success of EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey, which is published by a rival, Vintage Books.

The runaway success of Fifty Shades and The Hunger Games helped cut sales at Penguin by 4% to £441m and its adjusted operating profit down 48% to £22m.

10 Million Shades of Green: Erotic Trilogy Dominates Book Sales
May 22, 2012

"The sales velocity for ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is unprecedented, with reader demand still growing," Anthony Chirico, the president of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, said in a statement. "As we head into the heart of the summer reading season, sales are likely to continue exceeding even our most optimistic forecasts." The erotic novels were released by Vintage Books, part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, beginning in March in e-book format and in April in trade paperback. They were originally published by a small independent press in Australia and difficult to find in paperback form in the United

Vintage Floods Market with More 'Dragon Tattoo' Editions in Time for Film Adaptation
December 20, 2011

Although it is already receiving something of a mixed reception--A.O. Scott in the called it a film with "waves of brilliantly orchestrated anxiety and confusion but also long stretches of drab, hackneyed exposition that flatten the atmosphere"--David Fincher's American adaptation of the first novel in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is unquestionably one of the most anticipated of the holiday movie season. Opening Wednesday, the movie, which stars Daniel Craig (as Michael Blomkvist) and Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander), is also being accompanied by a flood of new editions from the book's publisher, Knopf. A

Oprah Announces New Book Club Selection
March 30, 2007

On Wednesday, Oprah Winfrey announced on her TV show that Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” published in 2006 by the Knopf Group of Random House Inc., is her second book club pick of the year and just her third overall selection since September 2005 and the controversial “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey. Oprah’s Book Club was established in September 1996, and since then, her selections have pulled some obscure works onto best-seller lists. However McCarthy’s book is a relatively safe bet for Oprah, already receiving much national acclaim. “The Road” is on the USA Today Bestseller List, a National Book Critic’s