Compass Points 9

Compass Points 9

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Wow! It’s not often you get a backlist title, from a small publisher that suddenly becomes a bestselling sensation! And even less often is that book a translation – first published in 1957 by an author from Kyrgyzstan!! But Jamilla by Chingiz Aitmatov (published by Telegram Books) is that very book. It has been selected as the Waterstone’s Book of the Month for August but even before the promotion has started the sales have been phenomenal. The chain has ordered and re-ordered copies – now over 10,000! Waterstones in Doncaster sold 160 copies last weekend alone and Waterstones in Birmingham have said the title is outselling Fifty Shades of Grey!  Book Trust called it “ A simple and beautiful evocation of time, place and the power of love which deserves to be known as one of the world’s great and timeless love stories” while The Guardian praised its “ beautiful scenes of human kindness, wisdom, love and devotion, set against the background of stunning central Asian landscapes.” The cover is classy and striking – the writing is truthful and vivid – it’s the perfect holiday read – so don’t miss out on one of the biggest independent publishing success stories of the summer; find out more and order copies here!

Meanwhile the sales figures for another superb translated fiction title from a small publisher continue to soar! A big thank you from all at Hesperus Press and from us here at Compass to all you fantastic UK booksellers for making The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared such a stunning success!

Order even more Hundred Year Old Man here

Who needs a bit of sunshine? Maybe you still have some? Here in London today it’s rather rainy – but whatever the weather’s doing outside your bookshop, make sure you’ve plenty of copies of Sunshine on Scotland Street inside and on display! Alexander McCall Smith has been tirelessly promoting the book in the media, in bookshops and at book festivals up and down the country and it’s sure to be another big seller for this immensely popular author. This book is the eighth in the 44 Scotland Street series. McCall Smith’s books have been translated into 46 different languages and have sold over 25 million copies throughout the world. Join Alexander McCall Smith on a walk round Edinburgh as he talks about the series.

Order Sunshine on Scotland Street here.

And don’t forget about Precious and the Mystery of Meerkat Hill – a new children’s title from the same author. This is the second in the series which goes back to the early life of the famous Precious Ramotswe, when as an eight-year-old girl she was already solving mysteries many years before she founded her Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency. If you haven’t come across these two children’s books by McCall Smith (the previous title is Precious and the Monkeys) I really recommend them to you – they are beautifully designed, with very vibrant and atmospheric illustrations throughout, and great fun to read aloud.

Order Precious and the Mystery of Meerkat Hill here.

Hurrah! A book from one of the Compass publishers is on the 2012 Man Booker Prize longlist. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (published by Myrmidon Books) is the second novel from the acclaimed writer of The Gift of Rain which sold over 60,000 copies. The Garden of Evening Mists has the same sumptuous style and exotic imagery so beloved by readers and critics alike, and deals with Malaysia’s turbulent road to independence: a time of insurrection and uncertainty and terror. The full list of the twelve authors on the Booker longlist is: Nicola Barker, The Yips (Fourth Estate); Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident (Sceptre); André Brink, Philida (Harvill Secker); Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books); Michael Frayn, Skios (Faber & Faber); Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Doubleday); Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories); Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate); Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt); Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury); Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber) and Sam Thompson, Communion Town (Fourth Estate). The shortlist of six will be announced on 11 September; and the overall winner on 16 October.

Find out more and order the book here.

The Oldie magazine celebrates its 20th anniversary this week with the publication of The Best of The Oldie: 1992 – 2012. With contributors including Auberon Waugh, Miles Kington, Beryl Bainbridge, William Trevor, Ruth Rendell and Sue Townsend as well as Richard Ingrams himself of course; the book is a 192-page, full-colour "antidote to youth culture”. If there’s one thing this magazine is terrific at, it is self-publicity – and there has been bucketloads of it this weekend for the book with big pieces in the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Independent – and there’s more to come throughout the summer.

Listen to a great interview with Richard Ingrams on the Today programme here.

And here's an article where Richard looks back on the early days of the magazine.

And you can order the book here!

And finally, we at Compass are bubbling over with Olympic excitement today – and were thrilled to be to be ringing and dinging our bells at 8:12am this morning! Did you join in? Were you already at work (!) or still snoozing in bed?! I was in my kitchen with my 9 yr old son – jangling the bells on various toys while outside we could hear church bells, door bells and car horns! 

Listen to the Olympic bells ringing this morning all around the country here!

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!

Compass Points 8

Compass Points 8

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Ah the power of publicity…You may recall we mentioned Elkie Brooks’ new autobiography Finding My Voice in last week’s Compass Points. Well following her appearance on BBC Breakfast this morning show, the title rose from number 59,761 to 46 in the Amazon bestseller charts! Don’t let Amazon get all the sales – display this book and it will sell – she has plenty of fans out there!

Here she is on BBC Breakfast

And here's the information on the book

And talking of titles that are selling fast – over 20,000 copies  of The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared have now been released into the UK book trade. And it is Waterstone’s strongest performer in their current Book Club promotion.  This  “imaginative, laugh out loud bestseller” (The Daily Telegraph)  is published by Hesperus Press – and if you’d like a copy of the Hesperus catalogue so that you can see what other gems of translated world fiction are coming up this autumn, then please email Pat@compass-dsa.co.uk with Hesperus Catalogue in the subject box and your name and address.

Order Hundred Year Old Man here and have a look at the Hesperus Press website here.

Do you tweet? Or do you just look at other people’s tweets? Or do you want to follow other people’s tweets – but don’t know how to sort the tweets from the chaff as it were? The Sunday Times has just listed The Twitter 100: Who to Follow and Why. One of those deeply cool individuals was @sixthformpoet – and what luck, there’s a book coming from him from Summersdale this autumn!  Since his first tweets at the start of 2011, this mysterious figure known has attracted over 30,000 followers on Twitter  (although following The Sunday Times article this is sure to rise) with his offbeat, witty and pun-laden observations on modern life. This collection brings together the best of The Sixth Form Poet’s pithy one-liners and whimsical poems, brought to life with Tom McLaughlin’s quirky illustrations. The book is published on 7th November 2012, ISBN 978 1 84953 319 5. Why not start following him now to see what the fuss is about?

Hurrah! I think the weather is finally about to improve! Just in time for the school holidays too! Make sure you’ve got plenty of copies of Cool Camping Kids for all of those families looking for some wholesome outdoor activities to fill the six week break with! You can see cool camper 7yr old Kira reviewing the book here on YouTube and you can order the book here!

Who feels like they’re going mad? Right now? All the time? Or just sometimes? Fear not – you are not alone. A provocative new book Back to Sanity by Steve Taylor is a fascinating look at the all too often downright crazy behaviour of human beings, allowing us to understand and recognize our “madness” better so that we can improve our lives. There was a huge piece in The Daily Mail (which has over two million readers) last week on this title – and the issue of mental health is never far away from media attention – so order this book now.

Well, the Olympics are nearly upon us. Excited or couldn’t give a monkey’s? Either way, make sure that you have copies of London’s Olympic Follies: The Madness and the Mayhem of the 1908 London Games by Graeme Kent in your Olympic books display. The London Olympics of 1908 was intended to reveal Britain and its empire at its zenith. The games opened in the pouring rain, which was to continue for the whole two weeks. Before the games had ended, almost everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, the organisers were universally condemned and it had caused a number of international incidents. Hmm…remind you of anything? The author is going to be interviewed on the BBC news on 24 July – all great publicity for this brilliant book! Find out more about the book here.

I’m afraid I have no pithy comments to add this week to the ongoing eBooks versus real books debate. However, on the subject of new technology (as we fogies still call it) in general; this still makes me laugh every time I watch it.

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!

Compass Points 7

Compass Points 7

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Enthusiasm is building for the Swedish crime novel The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen which is published on 25 October in the UK (it comes from the same Swedish publisher as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).  Bloggers and reviewers online are already falling over themselves to praise this gripping read – which has just published in the US. Read an online review of the book here. The US media have been queuing up to talk to Carin – last week for example she was on a US radio station together with Stieg Larsson’s partner – the link between the two authors is definitely going to be terrific for publicity! Read an interview with Carin Gerhardsen here.

The serialisation of Mick - the sensational biography of Jagger by Christopher Andersen has now begun in The Mail and oooh er missus; it’s pretty spicy stuff! Read some extracts below - and then make sure you have plenty of stock – this publicity is a gift!

Jagger - Carla Bruni - Donald Trump - Sarkozy - the plot thickens!

Jagger and Bowie - together in bed as well as on stage?! Who knew?!

 Order the book here -  the media spotlight is shining on the The Stones right now!

The great man himself live- back in 1972 - his prime?

And while we’re on the subject of British musical national treasures – Elkie Brooks is currently touring the UK to promote her autobiography Finding My Voice. Her professional debut at age 15 began a career that has spanned most musical genres and collaborations with some of the finest musicians of their generation; making her a household name. In the next few weeks she is doing interviews on most of the local BBC radio stations, and is live on BBC Breakfast TV on 18 July.

Order the book here

And here she is performing Pearl's a Singer back in 1977!

Now – would you describe Nick Clegg as a national treasure? Or is he more of a national irritation? The paperback edition of the acclaimed biography by Chris Bowers is out in August – and media interest in the tensions of the coalition has never been more fervent. How things have changed since early April 2010 when Nick Clegg was fighting for recognition, the young, fresh and personable leader of Britain’s third political party. Two weeks later he was the focus of ‘Cleggmania’ and his popularity was compared with Churchill’s.  Four weeks after that he became the second most important figure in the government – but within a year he was ridiculed and reviled as popular hopes turned to disappointment.  But who is Nick Clegg? And by what route did he enjoy one of the most spectacular rises – and falls – in British politics? Order the book here

But if you’d prefer to read about one of the truly great British leaders – then you’ll have to wait for the paperback edition of a very well reviewed biography of Churchill himself – which is coming from Birlinn in September.

And finally – both booksellers and customers are loving The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared. Read this big spread from last week's Saturday Telegraph.

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!

Compass Points 6

Compass Points  (6)

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

This week at Compass we are enjoying reading Watermelons – a highly entertaining and very provocative new title by James Delingpole which is published in October.  James Delingpole is the bestselling British author and blogger who helped expose the Climategate scandal back in 2009. At its very roots, argues Delingpole, climate change is an ideological battle, not a scientific one. In other words, it's green on the outside and red on the inside. At the end of the day, according to Delingpole, these "watermelons" of the modern environmental movement do not want to save the world. They want to rule it.

Hear James discussing the book here

And order copies of the book here

“I haven’t tasted chocolate for ten years and now I’m walking down the street unwrapping a Kit-Kat. It tastes amazing. Remember when Kate Moss said ‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’? She’s wrong: chocolate does. When I think of the wasted tears, the evenings spent alone, the friends lost, all those shared meals I’ve avoided... it strikes me as incredibly sad. I’ll never get those years back.”

At the age of 32, Emma Woolf decided to face the biggest challenge of her life: to let go of her addiction to hunger, exercise and control, and finally beat anorexia. An Apple a Day is a compelling and life-affirming true story of love and recovery – just published and getting a lot of very positive press coverage. The issue of body image is never far away in the media – and now Emma (who is the great niece of Virginia Woolf incidentally!) is just about to start writing a weekly weekend column for The Sun – which will heighten her profile still further.

Watch an interview with Emma Woolf here

And find out more about An Apple a Day here

Fifty Shades of Grey? More like Fifty Shades of Horrendously Badly Written – come on, let’s make sure the bookselling public have plenty of opportunity to read the original and best. Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland was first published in England in 1748 and is generally considered the first original English pornographic novel. One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history; it is republished by Arcturus Classics in August – and with a terrific retail price of £3.99 it’s a no-brainer to add to every bookshop’s mummy porn – sorry erotic fiction – display.

Order copies of Fanny Hill here

Publicity is building for The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared - the international publishing sensation which has sold over two million copies across the globe and is published in the UK by Hesperus this month. Waterstones have just announced that they have chosen it as one of their next twelve Book Club reads.

Read more about the Waterstone's Book Club in The Bookseller here

Watch the promotional film here

Order the book here

Real books or eBooks? The debate rages on. Why not watch this cute film  to help you make up your mind!

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!