Compass is now on
Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. You’ll get the breaking news on our top
titles even faster – and better still, we can find out what all of you lovely
booksellers are up to – and re-tweet your news back to all of our publishers,
editors and sales people! Happy days!
Another new publisher to welcome aboard the good
ship Compass: let’s give a big hand and a yo-ho-ho to Urbane Publications. They describe themselves as
“a new and exciting independent publisher dedicated to developing and
producing the books you want to read – hip, contemporary, groundbreaking
fiction and non-fiction designed to entertain, excite, and engage.” They
have great titles, great authors – and great covers – have a look at their
website urbanepublications.com and join them on their
“journey of discovery, finding new voices, defining new genres, and most
importantly creating the words you want read.”
One of the first titles we are looking forward to
bringing you from Urbane is the challenging, controversial and thrilling
new novel from Steven Berkoff coming in
April: Sod the Bitches! (hb, 978
1909273825, £12.99). Berkoff is one of
the best known writers and actors of modern times. His works always drive
controversy and debate and Sod the
Bitches! is no exception. Themes that haunt the Berkoff canon are
present in this startling novel, from his use of crude street patter to
discussion of sex wars; class wars; dislocation and abandonment of love in a
thankless and unyielding world. Sod the
Bitches! is testament to the power of words. It will shock, amaze,
inspire and horrify. This is a book for the brave – a novel to expand your mind
and challenge your moral compass and beliefs.
There has been a great deal of discussion recently
about the shocking re-emergence of racism in football: you can read an interesting piece on the Guardian website here.
Robson Press has just published an excellent title which is very relevant
to this topic: Pitch Black by Emy Onuora (hb, 978 1849548144, 17.99). Pitch Black is the story of British-born black
footballers from the 1970s, when black footballers first came to prominence
within the English game, to the present day, which sees them now make up some 30
per cent of English professional footballers. It is an important book on the
history of black footballers in the English game, their historic and existing
struggles, and the way both the game and society has changed. It relates how
profound changes in attitudes came about, but does so, for the first time from
the perspective of those who faced the poisonous stereotypes, the monkey
chanting, the throwing of bananas, and the bullets in the post. Emy Onuora charts not only the challenges faced
historically by black footballers but also examines their changing roles in the
game. Pitch Black is a frank,
controversial and often highly critical appraisal of the response to racism by
football authorities and the media. It includes interviews with over thirty
current and former professional footballers; including Cyrille Regis, John
Barnes, Ian Wright and Rio Ferdinand. Good title, eye-catching jacket, and you
could not get a hotter topic: you can order Pitch Black and find out more
here.
Beauty Tips for Girls by Margaret
Montgomery (pb, 978 1908885388, 8.99) is out this month from
Cargo. This is a smart, funny, feminist story told by three very
different women. Katy is a lonely teenager obsessed with a girls’ magazine, the
articles in which could be leading her into danger. Her mother, Corinne, is
drowning her sorrows and disappointments in alcohol while Katy’s teacher, Jane,
is finding it difficult to move beyond her own troubling past. As the three
women’s stories progress, through extracts from the magazine, letters,
confession, and personal narrative, what emerges is a witty and compelling
satire on the beauty industry and a very contemporary take on femininity and
womanhood. A buzz is already building on the blogs and twitter from those who
have read this book – Kirsty Logan called it “razor-sharp … a true
gem. … immensely readable and full of wry humour… the unflinching observation
cuts to the bone.”
Congratulations to all of our friends at
Carcanet, who have won the Alison
Morrison Award for Diversity at the IPG Awards for their commitment to publishing
authors from a diverse range of backgrounds. The 2015 Independent
Publishers Guild Awards were announced at a gala dinner last night at the annual
IPG conference – and you can see all 13 winners on their website here!
Make sure you keep the Why Vote? series of books from Biteback in
stock and on display, as we march ever closer to the election – and a possible
TV debate by the end of the month. Why Vote
Conservative 2015 (978 1849547369), Why
Vote Labour 2015 (978 1849547345), Why
Vote Liberal Democrat 2015 (978 1849547352), Why Vote UKIP 2015 (978 1849547376), and Why Vote Green 2015 (978 1849548403) are all
available now. You can read a very entertaining piece on the whether the sales
of each title are likely to mirror each party’s fortunes in the election, and
which sort of voter buys e-books and which buys “real” books: on Iain Dale's website here
Here’s another exciting piece of hot off the press
publishing news for you – we’re really spoiling you today! Scott Pack, (previously publisher at HarperCollins
imprint The Friday Project) has joined the lovely folk at Gallic Books to
set up a new imprint named Aardvark
Bureau. Aardvark Bureau will
publish "innovative and unusual writing from around the world" in print
and e-book formats, and will start on a schedule of one book a month, commencing
in September. And hurrah – the books will of course be brought to you from
Compass!
Pack is keeping details close to his chest at present, but said he
already had most of his first year's list lined up, describing it as "an
eclectic and exciting selection that it will be impossible to
pigeonhole." Pack denies his quirky choice of imprint name has been governed
by the chance to come first alphabetically in publisher lists – but it sounds
like a genius scheme to me!
Are you a bit of a grammar nerd – always correcting
your colleagues, and getting cross about apostrophes? I think you'll very much enjoy these jokes
then...
Well done to all the eight independent bookshops who
are now regional champions and will compete for the overall Independent Bookseller of the Year crown
(announced on 11th May). The regional
shortlists and winners have been praised by the judging committee for their
“creativity and passion”. Several repeat winners are among the regional
champions. The Gutter Bookshop, based
in Dublin and Dalkey, won the Ireland Scotland winner for the second year in a row (the
shop is also the reigning Children’s Bookseller of the Year), while Booka Bookshop in Oswestry took top spot in
the Midlands and Wales London ); and Storytellers, Inc, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire (North). While pipped to the post of their
respective regions, several shortlisted indies were particularly praised by
judges. In the Southwest region, Sarum College
Bookstore, Salisbury County Wicklow , Ireland
And here are some of the week’s best
Tweets – remember you can see them all first hand by following us
@CompassIPS or click here
if you are a Twitter virgin!
Lol. Nigel
Farage on @LBC: "I'm
not the Messiah. I'm just a very naughty boy". That's why he reaches parts of
the electorate others can't.
Our
thanks to Hilary Mantel, for calling The Flight of Sarah Battle "the best kind
of historical fiction" Tweet @parthianbooks for proof - out
May!
Muriel Barbery
The Elegance of the Hedgehog: one of the top ten novels chosen for A Year of
Reading Dangerously
"They'll rock
your world" – @guardian's verdict on Paul Muldoon's Songs and
Sonnets
Three women,
three journeys, one super book: @MargaMontgomery's Beauty Tips For Girls!
Missed @ElizaFilby talking 'God & Mrs Thatcher' on
@BBCRadio4
World @ 1? Catch up with @BBCiPlayerRadio (39m)
Now, this next paperback will not be for every
bookshop in the UK London Rosenberg sets London Rosenberg invites you to see London UK tourist and walking
season, this is a perfect gift book for anyone interested in London
There’s a great 7 min promo video for Rebel Footprints on YouTube, which you can watch
here.
@hotdudesreading (the fast growing Instagram feed
featuring hunky blokes reading on the New York
Who loves that classic 70’s novel, The Dice
Man? And who hasn’t been tempted to make life a bit more interesting by
deciding what to do on the turn of a die – indeed, many of us rely now and again
on “the rubber of truth” (an eraser with “yes” and “no” on alternate sides) to
help us with those tricky decisions. Well, bestselling author Gabrielle Bernstein has now come up with something
only marginally more sophisticated – a 62 card deck, each printed with “a
powerful, life-changing message, modernized and boiled down to a 140-character
description that can be tweeted, pinned on Pinterest, posted on Facebook or
shared on Instagram”. As Bernstein
says, “My hope is that you'll use this deck daily as a spiritual guide to
help expand your miracle mind-set. When in doubt, put your hand on the deck and
say, "Thank you, divine guidance. I need a Miracle Now. Show me what you've
got!" Gabrielle Bernstein is a
bestselling author who regularly lectures in the UK
World Book Day – how was it for you? My absolute favourite story
has to be of the little 11-yr-old lad who went off to school dressed as
Christian Grey- but was ordered by the headmistress to change his outfit to
James Bond! Who, as his mum said, is “a highly promiscuous character who
kills people” so how he is more acceptable in a school environment I really
do not know! Read the full story in the Guardian here. So here
is the obligatory WBD picture of a member of our Compass team making a tit of
themselves – and I leave you with 5 little known Wally facts.
1)
In
France
2)
His
girlfriend was originally called Wilma, but following complaints from the
producers of The Flintstones; was changed to Wenda.
3)
The books
are banned in several US States because of a 2mm pic of a woman sunbathing
topless.
4)
Odlaw
(Wally’s evil alter-ego/arch enemy) is Waldo (Wally’s title in the US
5)
Martin
Handford, Wally’s creator, has always been at great pains to point out that
Wally is not “hiding” – merely sauntering happily through life waiting to be
found!
That’s all for now
folks, more next week!
This blog is taken from a newsletter which is sent weekly to over 700
booksellers as well as publishers and publicists. If you would like to order any
of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles
Website or talk to your Compass Sales
representative.
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