"There are two opposed pathways being mapped out. One is shaped by commercial concerns, the other by a commitment to openness, and which one will win is not clear."--Paul Duguid, adjunct professor at the School of Information, University of California at Berkeley, speaking to the New York Times about the library book scanning programs of Google and the Open Content Alliance.
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Spurred by the decision to drop Elie Wiesel's Night from the bestseller list because it is an "evergreen," yesterday New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt tried to shed some daylight on how the newspaper's bestseller lists are made. Among his points:
The list is compiled by the Times's news surveys department and
is entirely computerized now. The sample stores are changed
"constantly," and reporting stores are not prompted with a finite list
of titles. Night and other books long in print are excluded
because "the editorial spirit of the list is to track the sales of new
books," Deborah Hoffman, editor of the bestseller lists, said. In
addition, in the case of Night, many of its sales stem from
being on student reading lists. The paper is considering creating a
"classics" list to accommodate books like Night.
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Hillary Clinton may be leading in the polls for the Democratic
presidential nomination, but books about her are trailing, according to
a Wall Street Journal story about another Hillary book now appearing, For Love of Politics by Sally Bedell Smith.
A Woman in Charge by Carl Bernstein has sold only about 57,000 of its 275,000 copies in print, and Her Way by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta has sold about 19,000 of 175,000 copies, the paper said. The two titles appeared early in June.
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Penguin
Audio, one of the five original publishers participating in eMusic's
audiobook downloading program, begun last month, has withdrawn its 150
available titles, according to today's New York Times. The reason: "concerns about digital piracy."
By contrast, Madeline McIntosh, publisher of Random House Audio, has
found no pirated eMusic copies of the company's titles and said sales
are "really encouraging."
David Pakman, CEO of eMusic, told the Times that the site is selling more than 500 audiobooks a day, double forecasts.
Listen up, Atlanta!
"Atlantans waste 60 hours a year stuck in traffic," noted the Journal-Constitution
in its report on a recent Random House Audio initiative to get more of
those drivers into a literary mood. "Atlanta was chosen for the
$200,000 ad campaign--ahead of Houston, Phoenix and Los
Angeles--because it boasts some of the longest commutes in the nation."
Random
House Audio launched the campaign at the Decatur Book Festival in
September, with billboards and MARTA buses "featuring messages that
began, 'Make your commute more . . . ,' followed by such choices as
'thrilling,' 'magical' or 'enlightening.'" The publisher now also
sponsors radio station traffic reports.
Diane Capriola, co-owner of Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, noted that more parents are buying children's audiobooks as an alternative to music or DVDs. "You try to get to Buckhead from Decatur, and it could take you a good 45 minutes," said Capriola. "It's just a good option to have."
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Congratulations to the Well Red Coyote: Books on the Rocks,
Sedona, Ariz., which has been voted Best Bookstore in Sedona for the second
year in a row as part of the Readers' Choice Awards of Kudos, the northern Arizona weekly.
Founded in April 2005 by Joe and Kris Neri, the Well Red Coyote is a
general-interest bookstore and has hosted more than 250 author and live
music events.
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Sue Lynn, owner of Confluence Bookstore, Bistro, and Business Center, Bellevue, Neb., told the Bellevue Leader that her new store will have a "quiet opening" Monday, October 22, with a grand opening scheduled for Thursday, November 1.
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Sales of manga continue to be strong in the U.S., but have diminished in Japan, the country of their origin. According to USA Today,
manga sales fell 4% in Japan last year to 481 billion yen (about $4.1
billion). Although sales in 2006 totaled 745 million copies, this
was still a significant drop from the 1.34 billion copies sold during
1995, the peak year for the genre. Changing tastes in the youth market
and the popularity of
state-of-the-art cell phones were among reasons cited for the
decline.
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Effective November 15, Kate Stark has been appointed marketing director for Putnam and Riverhead. She was formerly associate publisher for Avery and Viking Studio and earlier was at HarperCollins, where she was a marketing director as well as director of retail sales for the special sales department.
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Alberto Rojas has returned to HarperCollins, where he will be publicity director for Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks. He was formerly director of corporate communications for the Advertising Council and communications counsel--or spokesperson--for Consumer Reports. Before that he was publicity manager at Harper's Rayo when the imprint launched.
"For Your Reading Pleasure: How About Some Momicide?"
With that compelling headline, Baristanet.com launched a virtual book club last Friday with a review by Jay McInerney of Alice Sebold's latest novel, The Almost Moon,
which begins with the line, "When all is said and done, killing my
mother came easily." Each month the Baristanet Book Club will feature a
different author reviewing another scribe's work, along with author
interviews on audio. The Book Club is sponsored by Watchung
Booksellers, a local independent bookstore.
A site that delivers local news in Montclair and neighboring towns in
northern New Jersey, Baristanet.com has garnered a following among area
residents. "Weekly newspaper meets the Daily Show" is how co-founder
Debra Galant describes Baristanet.
A regular Baristnanet.com reader, Paul Bogaards, executive director of
publicity at Knopf, approached Galant about hosting book content. At an
Association of American Publishers meeting, Bogaards and industry
colleagues were discussing "what we can do to drive awareness for books
in our culture," he said. As the circulation of many newspapers
continues to decline--and they offer less book review
coverage--publishers' focus should be "finding out where readers are
aggregating and make books a part of that community," he added.
Baristanet.com is an example of a vibrant online
community of loyal readers that might fill the bill. "Where I live, it's all anybody seems to be
talking about," Bogaards said. "Baristanet seems to have more traction than
the New York Times or the Newark Star-Ledger. There's a reason why it's is as successful and sticky as it is. That's
because they're operating under the premise that all news is local.
They're actually doing what newspapers used to do."
Baristanet.com was launched in 2004, one of the first "placeblogs" to
appear on the Internet. Thousands of such sites across the country are
listed on Placeblogger.com, which earlier this year named Baristanet
the #1 Placeblog in the U.S. Baristanet hopes to syndicate Book Club content to other placeblogs.
The book club "isn't explicitly local content, so that's different for us," said Galant, a former New York Times columnist and author of the novels Rattled and the forthcoming Fear and Yoga in New Jersey.
"Whether our readers will embrace this or not is hard to say," she
added, "but we do happen to be a very literary area." As she wrote on
Baristanet.com, "Montclair might just be the 21st century Bloomsbury."
The town is home to
a significant amount of people who work in the media, Bogaards and Galant noted.
[Editor's note: Montclair is also the site of global editorial
headquarters of Shelf Awareness.] Baristanet
Book Club sponsor Watchung Booksellers lists more than
80 authors on its "Montclair's Finest" page.
Baristanet.com readers can debate and discuss The Almost Moon by
posting comments on the site, and an in-store chat--led by Galant--will
take place at Watchung Booksellers on Thursday, November 8, from 7-8:30 p.m.
Content for the Baristanet Book Club will be facilitated by the
National Book Critics Circle and the Association of American
Publishers. "If it succeeds, I think it will be proof positive to
newspapers and other outlets which have been cutting back on books that
there is a hunger for smart criticism among readers and that they are
missing out by neglecting this side of the news," John
Freeman, president of the NBCC Board of Directors, said. Although future
selections have yet to be determined, Freeman said, "I think we won't
lack for good choices with all the books out this fall."--Shannon
McKenna Schmidt
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This morning on the Today Show: Valerie Plame Wilson, author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
(S&S, $26, 9781416537618/1416537619). She will also appear today on
NPR's All Things Considered, the Charlie Rose Show and Larry King Live.
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Today on the Martha Stewart Show: Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780307336798/0307336794).
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Today on Dr. Laura Schlessinger's radio show: Richard Lavoie, author of The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Child (Touchstone, $24.95, 9780743289603/0743289609).
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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Bob Drogin, author of Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War (Random House, $26.95, 9781400065837/1400065836).
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Today All Things Considered examines the two translations of War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy, both now out on the marketplace battlefield. One from
Knopf is translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The
other is from Ecco and is translated by Andrew Bromfield.
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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: J. Craig Venter, author of A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life (Viking, $25.95, 9780670063581/0670063584).
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Today on Oprah: Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author most recently of You: On a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Manageament (Free Press, $25, 9780743292542/0743292545).
How would you like to win a date with these two? Tony DiTerlizzi
(r.) and Holly Black, authors of the blockbuster Spiderwick Chronicles
will visit your bookstore if you create the spookiest Spiderwick Window
Display. Check out the details at Spiderwick.com.
From last week's Book Sense bestseller lists, available at
booksense.com, here are the recommended titles, which are also Book
Sense Picks:
Hardcover
The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill (Overlook, $24.95,
9781585679287/1585679283). "Susan Hill's second foray into the realm
of crime fiction is a very British whodunit that unfolds in the
cathedral town of Lafferton, with DCI Simon Serrailler back in action.
Like Ruth Rendell's, the characters are as important as the
circumstances, and the result is a psychological thriller, full of
sharp detail and finely crafted prose. Very satisfying."--Whitney
Spotts, Schuler Books & Music, Lansing, Mich.
A Free Life: A Novel by Ha Jin (Pantheon, $26,
9780375424656/0375424652). "This is another excellent story by Ha Jin,
who immediately draws you into the lives of the Wu family--father Nan,
mother Pingping, and son Taotao--immigrants from China now in the U.S.
The experiences that Nan goes through make him re-evaluate his life,
which, in turn, opens readers to a wonderful, introspective
read."--Bobbi Brewer, Maine Coast Book Shop, Damariscotta, Me.
Paperback
A Monk Jumped Over a Wall: A Novel by Jay Nussbaum (Toby Press, $14.95,
9781592642014/1592642012). "Jay Nussbaum is a master storyteller. A
Monk Jumped Over a Wall is a heartfelt story of one man's journey of
self-discovery, as he searches for his life's true path. Nussbaum's
characters are vividly drawn, depicting both human frailty and personal
courage. Some books are read and forgotten, this one will long be
remembered."--Carol Arnold, Browsing Bison Books, Deer Lodge, Mont.
Ages 9-12
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (Harcourt, $16,
9780152060077/0152060073). "Urban's first novel for young readers is
about a girl who dreams of playing the piano at Carnegie Hall. She
needs a piano, but her parents give her an embarrassing organ, complete
with rhythm switches. This book is laugh-out-loud funny, and will
introduce many young readers to the great and terrible songs of the
1970s."--Stan Hynds, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt.
[Many thanks to Book Sense and the ABA!]
Let's face it: we're in the book business because we are book junkies. We would spit on rehab. Anthony Powell titled a novel Books Do Furnish a Room,
and we take that as literal and metaphorical gospel. So at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association show in
Seattle last month, since
what's in the future glitters more brightly than the present, we asked
sales reps for their personal favorite book from the upcoming winter
season. Some reps haven't nailed down the winter titles yet, so they
fudged their answers with fall titles, but no matter--the point is the
passion.
Dan Christaens was excited about A Curious Earth by Gerard
Woodward, a March title from Norton, and the third novel in a trilogy.
He was collaring people and reading chunks of it aloud and said he'll
be re-reading the entire trilogy straight through. He admired
Woodward's exquisite writing about mundane experiences (a la Five Skies
by Ron Carlson), such as a tire repair kit sending a mother into a
reverie about glue-sniffing. (Well, perhaps not everyone's quotidian
experience).
PGW reps, not surprisingly, came up with yin and yang picks. Cindy Heidemann cited Frances Itani's Remembering the Bones
(Atlantic Monthly Press, December), saying it had been a while since
she had fallen absolutely in love with a book: "This is the one. She
writes in a voice so strong and true I feel I would recognize this
woman on the street. A beautiful, elegantly straightforward exquisite
novel." Dave Dahl offered an example of the type of publication PGW is
known for: The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability from Cleis
Press, a book that helps people, that breaks some taboos to do so, and
that makes obtainable what previously had been hard-to-find.
When Asia Was the World by Stewart Gordon (DaCapo, October) was
the choice of Perseus's Adam Schnitzer. Writing about how Asia's great
civilizations spread, the author centers each chapter on a different
traveler's first-person account. The book is a fascinating read as well
as a definitive cure for western ethno-centrism, Schnitzer said.
Seira Wilson from HarperCollins was taken with a Hyperion title, The Monsters of Templeton
by Laura Groff (February). Mixing a bit of the ghostly (a monster, or
maybe not, that comes from a lake, or maybe not) with history, the
novel is about a woman's search for her father and the secrets that
lie below the placid surface of her home town. A different kind of
depth is explored in a Penguin reprint chosen by Penguin's Bob Belmont: Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels by Jill Jonnes is both an interesting account of the building of Penn Station and the effects of mass transit on a city.
With the second-largest printing in its history,
the University of Texas Press is publishing a gorgeous coffee table book, A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove by
Bill Wittliff (October). Ted Terry of Collins, Terry Associates
picked this unhesitatingly from hundreds of titles arrayed on his
tables. The sepia-toned photographs look like historical documents, and
the cover stars a grizzled yet sexy Robert Duvall--table display
material for sure.
John Eklund, who represents the Harvard/Yale/MIT group, chose Yale's Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
by David Attenborough. Not only is the art astounding, but the
production is sumptuous, with smooth and sensuous creamy paper-–a feast
for both the mind and several senses.
Chris Satterlund from Scholastic could not make up her mind between
Tunnels by Roderick Gordion and Timothy and the Strong Pajamas, a
picture book by Viviane Schwarz. Tunnels, a YA novel about a boy
searching for his father and discovering a subterranean society
forgotten by time, looks excellent. But Timothy, about a little boy who
isn't big and isn't strong until his mother mends his favorite pj's,
features a very cute sock monkey and charming animals.
Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy by Deborah
Rothschild is a July 2007 title from the University of California but
made it onto the list because Mark Anderson adores it, calling it a
breathtaking, personal story. Clinching the deal: he said that Phil
Garrett from Partners West thinks it's the sleeper of the list. He also
mentioned my favorite book from the press's fall catalogue, The Last of
the Wild Wolves by Ian McAllister. Farley Mowat-like with photos and a
DVD, it celebrates wolves thriving in a virtually untouched environment.
Eastern Washington University Press is publishing Barnacle Soup by
Josie Gray and Tess Gallagher in time for St. Patrick's Day. It's a
collection of folktales Gallagher has been working on for 20 years with
Gray, an Irish yarn-spinner. Steve Meyer from the press said the tales
are captivating. The collection will be published in a trade paper
version with French folds.
Christine Foye of Wilcher Associates went for Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai
(MacAdam Cage, September) (Shelf Awareness, September 27, 2007). If there were a cover contest, this would be
on the shortlist. There is so much Iranian fiction out right now that
she approached it with some trepidation, but loved the "intimate story
of dashed hopes and the dissolution of a family" living in the Jewish
ghetto in Teheran.
Peter Sis's The Wall, a September children's title from FSG (Shelf Awareness, May 23, 2007), is a
favorite of Krista Loercher from Macmillan. She called it a very
personal story about growing up in an Iron Curtain country and said
it's "a beautiful way for both adults and children to learn about that
period of history." She also liked The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr
(Holt, January), comparing it with The Orchid Thief. It chronicles a
year behind the scenes of the perfume business in New York and Paris as
two new scents are developed.
Reed Oros, also from Macmillan, double-teamed me with Krista to push an
April Picador title, The Man Who Turned into Himself by David Ambrose.
It was a rep favorite in 1993, languished on the backlist and this year
the reps requested that it be reissued. They are all behind the book,
which is being marketed as "The Best Book You've Never Read."
Amy King Schoppert from Simon and Schuster unequivocally named Howard
Jacobson's Kalooki Nights, which will be out in paperback in April. It
was overlooked in hardcover, by both bookstores and book readers, and
she hopes that the paper edition will provide the magic. She said she
couldn't put it down and called it the best novel she's read in 2007 (and she reads
a lot).
Amanda Gutowski from Houghton Mifflin marketing slipped in an August
title, When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson; she called it witty,
stylish and scathingly smart (and gets points for "scathingly," which
has been added to the reviewing thesaurus).
"So many books, so little time." And yet we continue to surround
ourselves with books, loving the possibilities in each one, and are
grateful for the people who aid and abet our obsession.-–Marilyn Dahl
