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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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