Your weekly round
up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!
OK, we’re all now into the full blown run up to
Christmas – and hoping that it’s a bumper one for the retail trade. What could
be more tempting for your customers to feast their eyes on in your seasonal
window display; than a good old fashioned Christmas ghost story? The Beautiful Child is based on an unfinished
novel by Henry James – the enormously
popular American writer, who has many many fans. The story has now been
rewritten and completed by Emma Tennant -
one of the U.K.’s best-selling female writers
and an expert at revisionist versions of works of classic authors, the most well
known of which is Pemberley - a sequel to Pride and Prejudice.
The Beautiful Child is an unforgettable
tale, which ends on a very Jamesian note of terror in a Christmas idyll,
amplified throughout by Tennant’s trademark feminist-dreamlike style. A chilling
account of cruelty and neglect, it suggests a terrifying real scandal behind
James’s inability to complete his story of a couple who beseech a fashionable
artist to paint the child they never had – none other than the dipsomaniac Mr
and Mrs Smith, longstanding servants of James . . .
This title will be of enormous appeal to Henry James fans as this is a little-known tale by
the author and its Christmas theme ensures mega publicity. This is kicking off
with Radio 4’s Saturday Review, which will be talking about the book on
Sat 1 December. And the Saturday Telegraph will be making it their lead
review in the Books section on the same day. The combined figures for
readers of the Telegraph plus listeners to Radio 4 are huge! And a
very high proportion of them are keen book buyers who all will be looking to buy
The Beautiful Child following the reviews
– make sure they can easily find it in your shop!!
And if you want to remind yourself of the scary
power of Henry James, watch this clip
from The Others – based on one of James’ most terrifying and popular
ghost stories – The Turn of the Screw.
Who remembers the news story about the little girl
who blogged about her school dinners – and then got into trouble with the
council? The publicity that the incident drummed up led to 10- year old Martha Payne being able to raise £120,000 for the
charity Mary's Meals, which helps to feed children in Malawi.
Her story is detailed in the new book Never Seconds:
The Incredible Story of Martha Payne and every copy sold will result
in a donation being made to the charity. Publishers Cargo have described the
book as 'the story of the year' – and they may well be right; it’s certainly
getting an astonishing amount of media attention! In the last fortnight Martha has been on
BBC Breakfast News, Newsround, Scotland Tonight, ITV
Daybreak and The One Show. There has been an enormous amount of coverage
in the newspapers too – you can see a round up of all of it here. All of this is
leading to mega sales – the books is rising daily in the Amazon sales charts –
don’t let them get all the action, order it here and get it on
display!
Are you watching all those copies of Fifty
Shades etc. whizzing through your tills and thinking “I’d like a bit of
that?” If it’s the mega amounts of money that EL James is making rather than the
S&M that appeals to you – then maybe you should give up the bookselling game
and try your hand at writing erotic fiction instead? Mills and Boon are
running a series of free workshops on writing erotica, which you can find
out about here. You get free champagne and cupcakes too – now that’s
more like it as far as I’m concerned. But of course they aren’t just running the
workshops to give frustrated saucepots something to do in the evenings – it’s
all part of a clever marketing ploy to promote a series of sexy books by
Tiffany Reisz from her Original Sinners series. As an unknown debut
author with monumental sales, Tiffany
Reisz’s success not only mirrors that of Fifty Shades of Grey,
but also demonstrates the reading public’s hunger for a new trend in erotic
fiction: explicit yet well written novels, with sex and storyline in equal
measure. An erotic novel within an erotic novel, in the Original Sinners series Tiffany Reisz examines dark compulsions and carnal
hungers. Oooh er. The third book in this series is The Prince, and it’s published in December.
Reviewers have described Reisz’s writing as “intense, heart-wrenching, sweet,
and above all...beautiful” and she is gaining new fans fast. Don’t miss out – order The Prince and find out more
here.
Yet again, finding enough affordable energy for the
UK is in the news again today, and there's no doubt that the energy crisis is
one of the most pressing and significant problems the world has to face. With
limited resources of fossil fuels left, and the additional political and
environmental issues that surround their use, it is clear that life on earth
cannot continue as it is without the development of alternative sources of
power. Wind power has been one of the most popular alternative forms of energy
suggested – but increasingly, many are starting to question its effectiveness.
The UK government’s policy of support for
wind energy and its attempts to achieve 20% electricity generation from
renewable sources by 2020 has been lauded by many, yet described as “a fatuous
obsession” by others. So Much Wind by
Struan Stevenson is just published. He
has served as a Conservative Euro MEP for Scotland since
1999 and is President of the Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable
Development Intergroup. He believes that the truth is that wind turbines violate
the principle of fairness by transferring vast amounts of money from the poor to
the rich. They despoil our unique landscape and environment; they risk plunging
the nation into a devastating energy crisis and through noise, the
flicker-effect and vibration, they abuse the health and welfare of people and
animals which have to live near them. They are visual monstrosities that produce
a trickle of electricity at vast cost to the consumer and they do not
significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Struan
Stevenson believes that the time has come to expose Scotland’s green energy myth and that
he’s the man to do it. This book is sure to ruffle plenty of feathers and you can find out more here.
And finally - The
Hundred Year Old Man who Jumped Out of the Window continues to storm
the bestseller charts - it was the number one in the Picks of the Year
from Amazon. The Odd Couple – which details the curious friendship
between Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis, was highlighted in The
Bookseller this week as being one of the week’s most reviewed titles in the
national press.
And if you want to seem super up to date and trendy
(what do you mean, no one uses that word any more), then why not waste a few moments watching this: Pop Love 2012; a great
mashup of 24 of this year’s biggest pop songs!
I love Henry James - and Emma Tennant, so can't wait to read this one!
ReplyDeleteI <3 the trendy vid!
ReplyDelete