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Auel Hits in Europe
Jean M. Auel's The Land of Painted Caves was the big story on international bestseller lists in April. The book, "30,000 years in the making and 31 years in the writing," according to PW's review, is the sixth and final volume in the Earth's Children series. It landed high on bestseller lists in Europe: #1 in the Netherlands and Sweden, #2 in Spain, #4 in France, #5 in the U.K., and #9 in Germany.
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McClelland & Stewart Starts New Nonfiction Imprint
Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart is launching a new nonfiction imprint this fall. Signal will showcase books by Canadian and international authors on important issues in politics, religion, culture, history, business and the environment.
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Content Services in India: A Special Report
Our special supplement on content services in India
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Lit Journal ‘APS’ Launches ‘Monkey Business’ in New York
Brooklyn lit journal A Public Space, along with author Roland Kelts and translator Ted Goosen have joined together to help launch Monkey Business: New Voices from Japan, an English-language edition of the Japanese literary magazine founded by prominent translator and professor Motoyuki Shibata. In fact, MB is based on APS and the new English version will offer a selection of cutting edge writing, poetry, manga, and interviews, culled from the Japanese magazine and will launch with a series of trans-cultural events in New York in April and May.
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International Bestsellers: Debuts in France, Spain, Sweden
New fiction on France’s March list included Harlan Coben’s Caught, the first two volumes of Stephen King’s Under the Dome, and Patricia Cornwell’s Port Mortuary. Also debuting was Katarina Mazetti’s The Family Vault, a sequel to the Swedish journalist’s Guy in the Grave Next Door, which sold 450,000 copies in Sweden.
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Hachette, Penguin, Random Join PEN for Publishers' Initiative
Hachette Livre, Penguin, and Random House have joined with PEN International to launch the PEN International Publishers’ Circle. The initiative will provide support for PEN International’s work and will focus on the publishing aspects of PEN’s work for Freedom of Expression.
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Random Creates Hogarth, a U.S.-U.K. Imprint
Two divisions of Random House that exist across the pond from each other are launching a fiction imprint that will share a close but non-exclusive editorial relationship. The Crown Publishing Group in the U.S. and Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, which is a division of The Random House Group in the U.K., announced the creation of Hogarth today. The imprint will focus on "contemporary, voice-driven, character-rich stories that entertain, inform, and move readers."
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BookNet Canada Launches Online Catalog
BookNet Canada, a non-profit industry organization which tracks book sales in Canada, launched its new online cataloging service, BNC CataList, on March 31.
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On Rights and Book-Scouting
Translations account for about 12% of all titles published in Russia in 2010. Here, as in other corners of the world, American and British blockbusters are translated and almost guaranteed top slots on the bestseller list. Names like J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, Nora Roberts, Stephenie Meyer, and John Grisham are no strangers in Russia.
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Bricks-and-Mortar Still Rules
Nearly 40% of Russia's book sales in 2009 came from independent bookstores. Bookshop chains contributed around 20%, and only 8% were transacted online. The dependence on bricks-and-mortar outlets remains unassailable even though bookstores outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and some other major cities (such as Ekaterinburg and Novosibirsk) are poorly stocked.
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Braving the Digital Path
Given that nearly 90% of Russian households are expected to have Internet access by 2012, it is easy to see why e-books, online retailers, and electronic libraries are getting so much attention (and investment interest) in recent years. Russian publishers, fueled by the success of their U.S. counterparts, are busy converting e-books and working with service providers to put the titles online. But this being a new sector in the Russian book market, challenges abound. Here, a few dominant players talk to PW about the general e-book industry, their successes, and the challenges ahead.
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A Young (and Very Ambitious) Group of Publishers
The current crop of Russian publishers is collectively on the young side, many of them born shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Then, teething problems were many and the growth path rocky at times. But today these publishers produce nearly 120,000 new titles per year, placing Russia firmly in the #4 slot in global ranking (after China, U.S., and U.K.) in terms of output.
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The Dynamic Russian Book Market
Talk about transformation. In a span of 20 years, the Russian book market has made a 180-degree shift, from state-owned publishing and distribution to privately held (except for a few exceptions) and increasingly client driven. Every component of its book market was created overnight, after state-owned publishing and the infrastructure supporting distribution and retailing collapsed.
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Japanese Publishers, Booksellers, Move Forward After Quake
Despite the grim news reports coming out of Japan, the country's publishing industry seems to have weathered the earthquake and tsunami with a relatively moderate amount of damage. However, some printers located in the affected areas are still recovering and have not resumed production, and at least three independent bookstores were destroyed.
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Canadian Book Sales Down
Canadian book sales were down significantly in the vital fall and Christmas season of 2010, according to BookNet Canada’s fourth quarter report. The market was down 5.6% in the number of books sold and 6.2% in dollar value. BookNet CEO Noah Genner attributed the drop to both e-book sales and economic conditions, but in his estimation e-book sales were a larger factor than the economy.
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Selling Abroad: Debuts Top European Lists
Most noteworthy among February’s international bestseller lists was the prevalence of new fiction titles in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.
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More International Bestsellers: Week of 3/21/2011
In the U.K., British thriller/crime writer Simon Kernick’s The Payback debuted at #1. John Grisham’s The Confession returned to the list after a hiatus, coming in at #2, and chick lit author Jill Mansell’s To the Moon and Back debuted at #3. As for British nonfiction, cookbooks made a strong showing, with books by Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, and model Lorraine Pascal appearing on the list, along with an unauthored tome, Grandma’s Best Recipes.
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Children's Publishing in Asia
In most parts of Asia, wizardry and fantastical plots have lost much of their magic after dominating the bestseller list for so long. The subsequent vampire and werewolf fever is, by comparison, not as rabidly welcomed in certain territories. As for that wimpy kid, well, his popularity suffers somewhat as Asian kids have different school life and growing-up problems. Still, these imported blockbusters have spurred local writers to produce longer fiction for children and helped boost a hitherto weak YA market.
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Former Fenn Clients Find New Distribution in Canada
As the dust settles from the bankruptcy announcement by Canadian distributor H.B. Fenn, its client publishers, including Hachette Book Group USA and Whitecap Books, are finding alternate companies to represent them.
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