Category Archives: Upcoming releases

Deathly Hallows first printing: 12,000,000

Posted on March 14, 2007 by Mark

Publisher Scholastic Corp. said on Wednesday it would release a record-breaking 12 million copies for the first U.S. printing of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which hits stores on July 21.

Reuters has the full story. To compare, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had a first printing of 10.8 million copies.

Posted in Publishers, Upcoming releases, Young Adult |

Unpublished novel misplaced

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Mark

From BBC News:

An unpublished novel by renowned author Jeanette Winterson has been found at an Underground station in south London.

The Stone Gods, by the writer of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, is not due to be published until September.

Martha Oster, 27, said she was “amazed” when she found the 134-page manuscript lying on a bench at Balham station on Wednesday night.

View the full story on BBC.co.uk – and yes, they do explain of how it came to be there. For those interested, Jeanette Winterson’s official site can be found here.

Posted in Authors, Upcoming releases |

Indie bookstores plan for next Potter release

Posted on March 1, 2007 by Keren

With four months to go until the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, independent bookshops have started the fight back against the massive discounting of the book by the bookselling chains. At the vanguard of the battle for the boy wizard’s fans is Dulwich Books, an independent in south London which is hoping to win customers with a Harry Potter loyalty scheme. Every purchase of children’s books worth £10 or more before June will win earn a point and when the card is full with 10 points, customers will be entitled to a free copy of the new Harry Potter.

Small stores have a choice between selling the book at the full expected £17.99 and risk driving away customers, or discounting it and losing money.  Alternate marketing strategies like this one could help encourage readers to buy indie.
Link to the Guardian article

Posted in Articles, Booksellers, Upcoming releases |

Mickey Mantle novel finds publisher

Posted on February 27, 2007 by Mark

“7: The Mickey Mantle Novel,” Peter Golenbock’s occasionally racy account of the life of Mickey Mantle, which was canceled last month by its publisher, HarperCollins, was revived yesterday by Lyons Press.

Read the story on NYTimes.com. For some reason, it’s filed under the Sports section – Baseball, to be specific – rather than Books.

Posted in Publishers, Upcoming releases |

Alexander McCall Smith novel excerpt

Posted on February 26, 2007 by Mark

Scotsman.com has an exclusive excerpt of Alexander McCall Smith’s new novel, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive:

It is useful, people generally agree, for a wife to wake up before her husband. Mma Ramotswe always rose from her bed an hour or so before Mr JLB Matekoni – a good thing for a wife to do because it affords time to accomplish at least some of the day’s tasks.

Click here to read the full excerpt (around 3,600 words).

Posted in Authors, Reading, Upcoming releases |

Harry Potter deluxe edition selling well

Posted on February 3, 2007 by Mark

AP reports:

It’s months away from being on bookshelves, but fans can’t get enough of the seventh – and final – Harry Potter book, no matter the cost.

Not only is “Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows” topping the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, a deluxe edition, priced at $65, is No. 2, outselling the “You” diet book, Sen. Barack Obama and an Oprah Winfrey-endorsed memoir by Sidney Poitier.

Full article can be found here.

Posted in Booksellers, Upcoming releases, Young Adult |

Deathly Hallows too expensive?

Posted on February 3, 2007 by Mark

The Wall Street Journal notes:

The price is $5 higher than author J.K. Rowling’s most recent book, and a sign that Scholastic is intent on maximizing its profits on what is expected to be the last in the Potter series.

Aggressive price discounting by big book retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc. means many consumers will be able to buy the book for $20 or less, however. Amazon.com is now taking preorders for $18.89, as is Barnes & Noble, which will charge $20.99 or $18.89 for members of its book club.

Carl Howe posted a few thoughts relating to the price on SeekingAlpha. An excerpt:

I find it ironic that this whining about book prices is being run the Friday before the Super Bowl, when attendees will an average of $5,540 per ticket for an afternoon’s entertainment. That’s just me, though.

More seriously, however, pricing the Harry Potter books is a serious marketing challenge.

View the full article here.

Posted in Booksellers, Upcoming releases, Young Adult |

Harry Potter 7 date announced

Posted on February 1, 2007 by Keren

Anticipation over the ending of the best-selling Harry Potter series reached new heights today as J. K. Rowling announced today on her site that:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on Saturday 21st July 2007 at 00:01 BST in the UK and at 00:01 in the USA. It will also be released at 00:01 BST on Saturday 21st July in other English speaking countries around the world.

BBC News says:

[Bloomsbury] said it would publish a children’s hardback edition, an adult hardback, a special gift edition and an audio book on the same day.

As well as making Rowling a dollar billionaire, the books have been credited with bringing children back to reading and reviving the British film industry.

Posted in Articles, Authors, Book Release, Children's books, Reading, Science fiction/fantasy, Upcoming releases, Young Adult |

Jeffrey Archer writes Gospel according to Judas

Posted on January 7, 2007 by Keren

British novelist Jeffrey Archer, renowned for penning a string of best-selling thrillers, has written the Gospel according to Judas Iscariot in a bid to throw new light on Christendom’s most reviled betrayer.

“It is a gospel, not a short story and not a novel. It is 22,000 words in length,” Archer told Reuters in an interview on Sunday announcing the book’s worldwide publication on March 22.

“We don’t have him dying which is a crucial part of the story,” Archer said of Judas who is said to have betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and then hanged himself in shame.

“The Gospel According to Judas” is penned in the hand of his son Benjamin Iscariot, with the authors using Christianity’s core, canonical texts as their point of reference.

This follows last year’s reappearance of a long-lost Christian text:

In April, a 1,700-year-old copy of the “Gospel of Judas” was unveiled in Washington. It said Judas acted on Jesus’ request in turning him over to the authorities because he was the only disciple in Jesus’ inner circle who understood his desire to shed his earthly body.

Link to the Yahoo! News article

Posted in Articles, Authors, Reading, Upcoming releases |

Coming titles for 2007

Posted on December 31, 2006 by Keren

The Guardian has a list of anticipated books for this coming year:

An extraordinary number of the novels coming our way in 2007 deal with war. As for non-fiction, the war in question is between weighty biographies and skimpy celebrities. So choose now between sex with Davina and 16th-century feminism with Germaine.

Link

Posted in Articles, Book Release, Reading, Upcoming releases |