From Richard Osman and Millie Bobby Brown to the upcoming book by Keanu Reeves, celebrity novels are everywhere. What’s behind the boom? And how do non-famous writers feel about it?I understood that if I was going to do it, I would have to put 100% of myself into it,” says Richard Osman about writing his debut crime novel The Thursday Murder Club, which was an immediate bestseller when it was published in 2020. He had attempted a novel before, but “I wasn’t giving it everything, I had too much on. And this was the first time where I thought: No, I’m able to focus on this for a couple of years now.” Osman’s agent, Juliet Mushens, adds: “He told me he was working on a novel, but he didn’t want to show it to anyone until he finished the whole thing.” When he did, “we did a couple of drafts and submitted it to publishers”. The rest is history: since The Thursday Murder Club was released, Osman has published three further novels and sold more than 10m books worldwide.He is the most successful example of a phenomenon that is more prominent than ever: the celebrity novelist. Of course, famous people have written novels for decades – from Alan Titchmarsh to Ben Elton. And the children’s market has become saturated with celebrities, including David Walliams, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Paul McCartney and Jamie Oliver. But sales of adult fiction by celebrities have remained relatively low, until recently. According to Nielsen BookScan data, in 2018 the Top 100 paperback fiction... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-13 09:00:12 UTC ]
Swedish literary agency Salomonsson has signed Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, the author of the chart-topping self-published picture book The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep. The book, which Ehrlin created to help parents lull their children to sleep, is currently the second biggest-selling title... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Patterson has jumped to the top of the UK Top 50 chart this week with 14th Deadly Sin (Arrow)—his 21st individual title to reach the summit since Nielsen BookScan’s records began. However, Swedish author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin has scored a surprise hit with his picture book The Rabbit... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Headline has signed two more books by author and Daily Telegraph columnist Bryony Gordon, including one looking at mental illness. Gordon is the author of The Wrong Knickers, also from Headline and about Gordon’s 20s, which has sold 45,225 copies through Nielsen BookScan to date. Her first new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sphere is to release a new book by Kevin Pietersen this autumn, focussing “squarely” on events on the pitch. Pietersen’s KP: The Autobiography, released last year, has sold 106,654 copies through Nielsen BookScan to date. In the book Pietersen criticised a number of his former England cricket... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While half of the publishing industry has taken advantage of the brief August lull to spend a fortnight in Devon reading Elena Ferrante, the reality—as many a hard-pressed publicist can testify—is that the autumn rush is almost upon us. In under a fortnight, Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James has retaken the Official Top 50 number one from Harper Lee, as Grey (Arrow) sold 17,171 copies to Go Set a Watchman's (William Heinemann) 15,476 in the chart this week. Grey’s sales were down 25.8% week on week, but Watchman dropped further, with a 42% decrease in volume. Despite... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After its historic first week of sales last week, Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' sold roughly 220,000 print copies for the week ended July 29, according to the outlets that report to Nielsen Bookscan Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Boris Johnson is to write a biography of William Shakespeare for Hodder & Stoughton for October 2016. The publisher has confirmed the deal, which was reported in the Sunday Times to have been done for £500,000. The newspaper reported that Johnson’s advance was almost seven times his salary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fourteen indies opened between April and June, according to the ABA. And new stores continue to open, including Books by the Beach in New Smyrna Beach, and a second location for Ye Olde Warwick Book Shoppe. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Go Set a Watchman' sold over 746,000 copies in its first week on sale at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The numbers easily made the Harper Lee novel the #1 title on PW’s bestseller list, topping 'Grey' by E.L. James. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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George RR Martin has urged “every true fan” of science fiction and fantasy to vote for this year’s Hugo Awards to “help protect the integrity of the rocket”. The 2015 Hugo Awards, honouring the best science fiction and fantasy works and achievements of the previous year across a number of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fans anticipating 'To Kill a Mockingbird' author Lee's upcoming book 'Watchman' got a sneak peek when the first chapter of the novel was posted online. The first chapter contains some interesting revelations. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paula Hawkins’s novel has now been top of the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks, outlasting even Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol• How Paula Hawkins wrote ‘the new Gone Girl’A record set six years ago by Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol was broken this week by Paula Hawkins’s dark thriller The Girl on the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of print books for the first six months of 2015 were running just about even with the same period in 2014 at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Units inched up 0.3% in the period, to more than 286 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pavilion imprint Batsford has a 500,000 first print run for colouring book Millie Marotta's Tropical Wonderland, to meet retail orders around the world. The book, released today (25th June, £9.99), is the follow-up to Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom, which has been translated into 30 languages... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The book sold more than 350,000 copies in just three days on sale, according to Nielsen BookScan, which records roughly 80% of print units. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James’ Grey (Arrow) has become the fastest-selling adult paperback in the UK since records began, smashing the previous record by almost 270,000 copies, while selling nearly 650,000 physical and digital units in just three days on sale. Grey shifted 385,972 print units Thursday through... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors and book reviewers have hit out at national newspapers for shrinking the amount of editorial space given over to children’s books, despite huge growth in the market. In the UK, the children’s sector (including teen and YA titles) is the fastest-growing area of the market: sales grew... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Victoria Hislop has retained the top spot on the UK Official Top 50 for the second consecutive week while Paula Hawkins continues to close in on Dan Brown’s record for most weeks as an Original Fiction number one. Hislop’s The Sunrise (Headline) sold 28,450 copies last week through Nielsen... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Victoria Hislop proved tougher than the American Sniper, with the British author’s newest release seeing off a single-channel promotion to earn her first number one in six years. Hislop’s The Sunrise (Headline) sold 26,055 units through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market in its first week... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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