The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's long-anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, will be published September 15 by Knopf Doubleday. A first printing of five million copies is planned for the book. The New York Times noted that "fans and the publisher have been waiting a long time for Mr. Brown to finish the new book. It was originally scheduled for a 2005 delivery. The Lost Symbol will again feature Robert Langdon, the protagonist of The Da Vinci Code."
In a statement, Brown called the writing of the book "a strange and wonderful journey" and said he had spent five years on research for the book. "Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."
Lost Opportunity?
Already the price slashing has started. For orders in advance, Amazon is offering a 46% discount on the $28.95 title while Barnes & Noble has the book available at 40% off--and at 46% for its members. Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands bookstore, Tempe, Ariz., and president of the ABA told the Wall Street Journal she expects to sell only 50 copies of The Lost Symbol during the first two weeks it's on sale because of the heavy discounting by chains, warehouse clubs, online retailers and others.
The Lost Symbol is likely, too, to cause other publishers to shift publication dates of some fall titles.
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PubWest offers a detailed outline of the Google settlement, written by PubWest members--and attorneys--Jon Tandler and Lloyd Rich. Scan it here.
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In a Fast Company magazine piece about Seattle and why "so many creative, influential minds--both native and transplanted, from Quincy Jones to Bill and Melinda Gates, Cameron Crowe to Sir Mix-a-Lot--who have contributed so much to the world, love this city and call it home," Garth Stein, whose most recent is The Art of Racing in the Rain, quoted our own "energetic" publisher, Jenn Risko, who said, among other things, "You know one of the cool things about Seattle? The person standing next to you doesn't hate your guts because of how successful you are." [Editor's note: "energetic" doesn't quite describe that energy.]
Incidentally the same issue of Fast Company has a profile of HarperStudio editor Julia Cheiffetz. Part of what she said: "Dynamic e-books may incorporate video or narrative asterisks, in the same way that you'd go into a museum, put on headphones, and listen to an explanation of the art on the wall. With each project, we think about what kind of experimentation is appropriate. We don't want to sprinkle Cheetos on top of foie gras."
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A noteworthy event occurred last week at the new Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wis. On his Boswell and Books blog, Daniel Goldin wrote that The Four Day Diet by Ian K. Smith became "the first officially shoplifted title" from the store.
"Shoplifting and theft is an issue I've been thinking out since the store opened," Goldin observed. "Well no, I've been thinking about it for years. How do you balance a comfortable space with one that doesn't become an easy target?"
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Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio, partnered with Wiley Events to host
its first SKYPE-based author event last Thursday when Mark White, editor/author of Watchmen and Philosophy "appeared" in front of an audience at the bookstore while speaking from his home in New Jersey. The live webcam event was co-sponsored and co-promoted with Clifton Comics and Games, a local comic bookstore in Cincinnati.
"We were very happy with the event and the level of discourse between the author and the audience. While the event was in progress, curiosity got the better of people who stopped by to join in," said Michael Link, publisher relations and events manager for Joseph-Beth.
"We've been planning this event for months and are delighted that it went off without a hitch", said P.J. Campbell, Wiley's director of events.
"It was great to connect with fans from the comfort of my home, as if I were in the Joseph-Beth Booksellers' store," added White.
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In the Wall Street Journal, author Steven Johnson offered a detailed examination of the e-book phenomenon, noting, "There is great promise and opportunity in the digital-books revolution. The question is: Will we recognize the book itself when that revolution has run its course?"
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Under a four-year joint operating agreement, Biblio.com and Biliopolis are building a new e-commerce site for the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. Biblio.com is providing the search engine and e-commerce technology, and Bibliopolis is creating the design and user interfaces.
The association includes 450 antiquarian book dealers from the U.S., and it umbrella organization, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, has a membership of more than 2,200 book dealers, including the ABAA members. The ABAA has had an e-commerce site since 2000.
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Jackie Hickman has opened Novel Idea, a used bookstore in Hoopeston, Ill., the Danville Commercial-News reported. "So many ideas were going through my head," noted Hickman, "and I said 'Jackie, come up with a novel idea' and that’s how I came up with the name."
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Ben "Stone" Stomberg hopes to open an indie bookstore in Galesburg, Ill., according to the Register-Mail, which reported, "Working with Cat Garza, manager of the Entrepreneurship Center, and the city’s economic development director, Cesar Suarez, Stone Alley Books & Collectables is on its way to becoming a reality."
Stomberg is scouting locations and "found a couple of possibilities. The big problem is overhead. There’s not a large profit margin." The Register-Mail noted that Stomberg "hopes to carry about 15,000 used books, with 700-1,000 new hardbacks and trade paperbacks."
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For $149 a night, fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series "can stroll along the beaches where Bella and friends explored tide pools, or for the ultimate firsthand fan experience, visit locales that Bella and Edward frequented--like scenic Forks High School and the Forks Community Hospital," Variety reported. The Kalaloch Lodge in Forks, Wash., where the novels are set, "is offering 'Twilight' and 'Bella' packages by which Twilighters can 'view the sites that mark the milestones in Bella and Edward's romance.'"
"We wanted to capture all of the publicity surrounding Twilight, " said Beth Showalter, the lodge's director of sales and marketing. "During the summer last year, Forks was reporting 500 to 600 visitors a day because of the books."
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With all the excitement surrounding the Pulitzer Prize announcements yesterday (see below), NPR's All Things Considered chose to remind us how fleeting success can be with a piece titled, "And the Pulitzer tor Forgotten Fiction Goes to . . ."
ATC's "Unscientific List Of Least-Known Fiction Winners" included:
- His Family by Ernest Poole (1918)
- Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (1927)
- Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (1929)
- Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (1930)
- Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (1931)
- The Store by T.S. Stribling (1933)
- Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller (1934)
- Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (1935)
- Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (1936)
- In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (1942)
- Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (1944)
- Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (1949)
- The Way West by A.B. Guthrie (1950)
- The Town by Conrad Richter (1951)
- The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (1959)
- The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (1962)
- Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (1978)
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The New York Times explored a "heretofore unknown capacity for speed-reading," as Americans not only propelled Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent to instant bestseller status after Hugo Chávez gave a copy to President Obama (Shelf Awareness, April 20, 2009), but also inspired hundreds of "readers" to review the book on Amazon almost instantly.
"Who would have believed that so many people could order the book, get it delivered, and read it overnight! Who says Americans have become a nation of illiterates?!?" the Times noted, suggesting "it just might be that some of the people flooding Amazon with negative evaluations of the book saved time by not actually reading it before speed-writing their responses to it."
For those unfamiliar with the fine points of Islam, Tamim Ansary (West of Kabul, East of NewYork) makes a compelling case that "the history of the world" is seen quite differently through Islamic and Western eyes. Ansary begins that history with Mohammed the Prophet and his Hijra from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE; he recounts Mohammed's message from Allah and the rapid growth in the number of his followers; he then continues with the fascinating events in the years after Mohammed's death during which his successors (the first four khalifs) consolidated his teachings and articulated the founding narrative of Islam. By 661 CE (41 AH--After Hijra), Islam had established itself.