Notes: Faulks Writes Bond; Changes at Ingram; Hammer
Faulks. Sebastian Faulks.
The Ian Fleming estate has confirmed that Sebastian Faulks, whose books include Birdsong, Charlotte Gray and Engleby, will accept the career-defying assignment of writing the next James Bond novel.
According to the London Guardian, "The book, Devil May Care, will be published next May and is set in 1967, when, Faulks said yesterday, 'Bond is damaged, ageing and in a sense it is the return of the gunfighter for one last heroic mission.' His own interpretation of the spy, he hinted, would show all the caddishness of Bond's previous incarnations, tempered with just a shade of new-mannish sensitivity.'"
The article included an amusing postscript, in which John Crace imagines how a Faulks version of Bond might read. Sample: "For now he had an appointment with M to discuss his new role as the unreliable narrator."
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Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants "has muscled its way to being a big paperback read this summer," despite competition from two Oprah picks, according to a New York Times piece examining the surprising bestseller status of this "darling of the independent bookseller circuit."
Published by Algonquin, Water for Elephants has been a word-of mouth hit and a Book Sense bestseller, but the Times noted that its continuing success "is helping Spiegel & Grau, the author's new publisher, rationalize its decision in November to pay more than $5 million for Ms. Gruen's next two books."
"It seems to have a whole new life in paperback," said Linda Ramsdell, owner of the Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, Vt.
Algonquin publisher Elisabeth Scharlatt told the Times she "was happy for Ms. Gruen. But she added: 'All publishers think that they can make a best seller happen, but we don't hear about the ones that don't work.'"
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Just as Barry Bonds* closes in on Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record, Borders released yesterday the second title in its new proprietary publishing program: The Hammer, a collection of Sports Illustrated columns chronicling Aaron's career, which culminated in breaking Babe Ruth's home-run record. With an introduction by Tom Verducci, the book includes pieces by George Plimpton, Ron Fimrite and Mike Capuzzo. The Hammer retails for $14.95, appears under the State Street Press imprint and is available only in Borders and Walden stores.
The first Borders proprietary literary property was the thriller Slip & Fall by Nick Santora, released a month ago, which has appeared on Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe bestseller lists and was named a top summer read by USA Today.
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An official British racism watchdog group has recommended that bookshops across the U.K. ban copies of a comic book depicting the adventures of fictional Belgian hero Tintin in the Congo. According to Reuters (via the Washington Post), "Britain's Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) recommended that Tintin in the Congo be removed from shelves after it received a complaint from a member of the public who had seen it in a branch of the Borders chain of book stores." In response, Borders has decided to move the title to its adult sections from its children's sections, according to today's New York Times.
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Ingram Publisher Services has made a series of changes for its sales force:
Art Carson, formerly Ingram's region field sales representative for Northern California, will join the higher education team as an account manager responsible for sales to colleges and universities.
Sandy Hernandez, who has 17 years experience in the book industry, including management and buying at Rizzoli Bookstores, Store of Knowledge and Chronicle Books, is the new special sales manager.
Elizabeth Silvis, a senior marketing manager at HarperCollins since July 2006, succeeds Hernandez as Ingram's Southwest Region field sales representative, covering Southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Hawaii.
Chris Hocking, who has been with Borders since 1987, first as an assistant store manager and most recently as a buyer, will join Ingram as a national accounts manager responsible for sales with the Borders Group.
Julia Cowlishaw, former general manager of Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, Mich., is Ingram's new Northern California Region field sales representative, covering Northern California, northern Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming.
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"Bookstore still motoring" was the headline in the Los Angeles Times business section report on the sale by Chet Knox of his bookstore, Autobooks-Aerobooks, Burbank, Calif., to Chuck Forward, an aerospace hydraulics engineer, and Tina Van Curen, a former racer whose father built hot rods.
Since 1951, Autobooks-Aerobooks has sold an array of "books, models and memorabilia geared to enthusiasts of cars and plane." Among its clientele are Nicolas Cage, Tim Allen and Jay Leno.
"When you come from a small town like I did, the bookstore is always a great gathering place," said Leno, who has been a customer for more than 25 years. "So I try to do what I can to encourage it. It's the only bookstore where every single book is something I'm interested in."
Thomas Perry is the author of 14 novels, including Edgar-winning The Butcher's Boy and its sequel, Sleeping Dogs; the New York Times Notable Book Metzger's Dog; the five-volume Jane Whitefield series and Death Benefits, Pursuit and Nightlife. His new book, published by Harcourt this month, is Silence ($25, 9780151012893/015101289X). Here Perry answers questions we pose occasionally to people in the industry.
With generously applied, textured brushstrokes and the die-cut format she employed to such strong effect in books such as Black? White! Day? Night!, Seeger poses an age-old question for youngest book-lovers: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Initially, the answer may seem simple: "First the egg." The opening spread conveys the word "First" against a buttery yellow backdrop while opposite, on a thickly painted landscape of earth-toned burnt orange and brown, the text "the EGG" appears above an oval-shaped die-cut opening, completed with layered, cream-colored paint. With a turn of the page, the same oval opening in the page now lays against that buttery yellow backdrop to form the body of a chick ("then," the text reads), while, across the book's gutter, "the CHICKEN" (cream-colored) struts off stage right. The examples that follow take incidents of metamorphosis from nature. For "First/ the TADPOLE/ then/ the FROG," for instance, the nubby green skin of the frog doubles as the surface of the squiggly die-cut tadpole; part of a butterfly's wing fills in the cut-out form of a caterpillar. Even the "or" in "story" completes the die-cut opening in "word" ("First/ the word/ then/ the story"). Seeger brings readers full circle when she rounds up all the creatures she has highlighted, then turns the tables with the closing line, "First the CHICKEN/ then/ the EGG!" (Even the dust jacket plays into the joke: a die-cut egg-shaped oval in the jacket teases to the cream-colored chicken preprinted on the cover.) For youngsters just learning about the cycle of life, this book offers an up-close, witty look at nature.--