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 ]
When book blogger Georgia McBride and St. Martin’s Press teamed up in November 2009 to run a contest soliciting what they called new adult fiction from aspiring authors, they had no idea how huge this new niche would become. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of both hardcovers and trade paperbacks, the industry’s two largest print categories, were up 2% in the first six months of this year, compared to the first half of 2013, leading to an overall 1% gain in print unit sales at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The second installment of J.K. Rowling's Cormoran Strike series (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) sold roughly 21,000 copies in its first partial week on sale, according to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hillary Clinton’s "Hard Choices" sold 85,721 copies in its first week on sale at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just under 3m book sales registered through Nielsen BookScan for the week ending the 31st of May... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hillary Clinton spoke about her upcoming book at the Association of American Publishers' annual gathering. The work is scheduled to be released this June. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books sold through Nielsen BookScan’s mass merchandisers/other channel fell 9% in the first 10 weeks of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The memoir of former defense secretary Robert M. Gates has sold more than 80,000 copies during its first week on sale in the outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 4% in the first week of 2014 compared to the week ended Jan. 6, 2013, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of print books through outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan’s retail & club channel fell 2.5%, to 501.6 million units, in 2013, compared to 2012. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite the controversy stirred up Wednesday afternoon by critical remarks of "homosexual behavior" by Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson in a GQ interview, Simon & Schuster has no plans to pull Phil Robertson's bestselling book, Happy, Happy, Happy. The title has sold nearly 600,000... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster has launched a new social media community, The Hot Bed, to promote the "New Adult" genre complete with a "chili chart" to gauge hotness. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Print sales held up well during the week of Thanksgiving this year, rising 7.5% in Nielsen BookScan’s retail & club channel compared to the week of Thanksgiving in 2012. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Manchester United legend's bestselling memoir pushed from the top of books chart by Jeff Kinney's weedy heroHis protagonist is a lazy schoolboy weakling, Greg Heffley, but now children's author Jeff Kinney has shoved the big man of football off the top spot in the UK official book chart.Hard... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The National Book Awards in recent years has been working to raise its profile and increase books' cultural impact. Now it's taking another step toward extending its reach. The National Book Foundation, which administers the prizes, will announce Monday that the 2013 awards ceremony and benefit... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2013-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A free copy of Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook, Save With Jamie, is being donated to every... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Hanks is expected to reprise his role as Robert Langdon in the film adaptation of Dan Brown... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Astronaut Chris Hadfield has signed with Little, Brown to publish "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth." The book lands Oct. 29.If astronaut Chris Hadfield can write as well as he can sing a David Bowie song, his upcoming book is going to be good. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven and the latest Wimpy Kid title were the only books to sell over 300,000 print units in the first three months of 2013, according to Nielsen BookScan, but neither is in Amazon’s top 20 bestselling Kindle titles of the year, showing the disparity between print and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Half of the top 20 bestselling books of 2012 in print were either Fifty Shades titles or Hunger Games titles, and only one book not written by E.L. James or Suzanne Collins—Jeff Kinney’s latest Wimpy Kid title—cracked the one-million-copies-sold mark for the year, according to Nielsen BookScan,... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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