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Italy - La Biblioteca Dei Morti

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Things are jumping in Italy. The launch of the book late last week by the publisher Nord was heralded by a mind-shattering review by Antonio D'Orrico, the esteemed book reviewer for the leading national newspaper Corriere Della Sera. I understand this gentleman can sometimes be pretty tough on a book but it seems he liked La Biblioteca Dei Morti, writing that it was "one of the best-constructed novels I've read in my over-14-years as a book critic." For Italian readers here is the full article:

BDM-d%27orrico-1.pdf

Needless to say, this has had a positive effect and I've been told the book is already a bestseller after only a few days. Heady stuff.

UK Release of Library of the Dead


Happily back from a wonderful trip to England for the UK launch. I couldn't have been more impressed with the professionalism and enthusiasm of the entire Random House/Cornerstone group. Their posters for the book were all over the place on British Rail and London Transport and all the bookstores I visited for signings etc. had copies on prominent display.

The efforts seem to be bearing fruit. In its first week, the book hit the Times of London bestseller list and there was a nice blurb in the Times Saturday Review books pages!

For thrillers, the supermarket channels are really important, and at ASDA (Wal-Mart) it debuted at the #4 position for all books. Embarrassingly enough, the ASDA books buyer has stickered all their copies as "Better than DaVinci Code." I don't know about that, but I don't hate the way it sounds.


Paperback versus Hardcover

Friday, May 8, 2009
A reader recently asked me if I was "disappointed" that the US release of Secret of the Seventh Son was going to be in paperback original form rather than hardcover. It's an interesting question.

For a new author, the most important thing is getting published. Period. Beyond that, you can argue that everything is gravy. Worldwide, I'm fortunate to have 25 publishers and each is an expert in marketing and selling books in their own country. Some have chosen hardcover releases, some, trade paperback formats, some, like HarperCollins US, mass market paperbacks.

In a rotten economy, it's hard to ask a reader to fork over 20 dollars for a hardcover thriller from an unknown author. It's certainly in my best interest to get as many people as possible to take a chance on me. The German edition, Der Namen Der Toten, was launched as a paperback original and has spent 8 weeks on the Spiegel bestseller list. Would this have happened with a hardcover?

In the coming weeks we'll be able to do an uncontrolled experiment. The UK will launch Library of the Dead as a mass market paperback and Canada and Italy will release it as a hardcover. I'll let you know how it comes out.





Italian Book Trailer

Monday, May 4, 2009
Here's a link to the Library of the Dead (La Biblioteca Dei Morti) book trailer the publisher Nord put together for the book's release in Italy later this month.


Even though I don't speak Italian, the presenter is so expressive and the production value is so high, I can almost understand it. I think it's terrific.