PRODUCT PREVIEW
Tipped for the top
Jonathan Ruppin highlights the paperback titles set to wow readers between July and Christmas 2008
KEY TO RANKING:
Giants 150,000+ sales
Bestsellers 100,000+ sales
Bubbling Under 50,000+ sales
JULY GIANTS
J K Rowling
Harry Potter
and the Deathly
Hallows (adult
edition)
Bloomsbury,
£8.99,10th,
9780747595823
With one final
marketing flourish, publishing’s
most remarkable phenomenon
finally becomes backlist. A
box set of all seven paperbacks
follows in October.
Dean Koontz
The Darkest Evening of the Year
HarperFiction, £6.99, 1st, 9780007226627
Koontz is starting to move
from horror sections to general
fiction runs, which is more
appropriate for Harlan Cobenstyle
thrillers such as this.
Danielle Steel
Bungalow 2
Corgi, £6.99, 1st,
9780552151818
This behind-thescenes
look at
Hollywood life
will sell her usual
250,000-plus.
Michael Connelly
The Overlook
Orion, £6.99, 10th,
978072882734
This was originally written in
serial form for the New York
Times and the paperback boasts
a new final chapter. I predict a
small dip in Connelly’s usual
sales of 250,000 since slimmer
books like this struggle in
three-for-two promotions. Still a
giant though.
James Patterson & Michael
Lewidge
The Quickie
Headline, £7.99, 10th, 9780755335725
A franchised stand-alone
addition to the Patterson canon.
Wendy Holden
Filthy Rich
Headline Review, £6.99, 21st, 9780755325139
Headline’s sophisticated new
cover look plus favourable
comparisons with Jilly Cooper
should arrest the recent dropoff
in her sales.
David Gibbins
The Last Gospel
Headline, £6.99, 21st, 9780755335169
With his début Atlantis selling
180,000 copies, Gibbins’ impact
on the Dan Brown market
was remarkable. Already
a supermarket favourite,
Headline hopes his third will
build his high street presence.
Robert Goddard
Name to a Face
Corgi, £6.99, 28th,
9780552152129
Full of his usual
ingenious twists,
this has been
Goddard’s
most successful
hardback ever, with UK sales
of more than 250,000. His last
paperback, Never Go Back, hit
the quarter-million mark—a
20% leap from his previous title.
Ruth Rendell
Not in the Flesh
Arrow, £6.99, 31st, 9780099517221
Arrow hopes that added
“Inspector Wexford” branding
on the jacket will help the queen
of the creepy whodunnit break
the quarter-million barrier.
Jeffery Deaver
The Sleeping Doll
Hodder, £6.99, 24th,
9780340833865
Deaver will now
alternate between
thrillers such as
this featuring FBI
agent Kathryn
Dance, introduced in The Cold
Moon, and his more established
Lincoln Rhyme series. There
will be ads during TV series
“CSI”.
Robert Harris
The Ghost
Arrow, £7.99, 3rd, 9780099527497
Taking time off from his
10 The Bookseller Autumn Paperback Preview | 6 June 2008 www.thebookseller.com
Cicero trilogy, Harris uses
his experience as a political
journalist to bring us a
contemporary theme with his
usual gripping storytelling.
It’s sold 180,000 in previous
formats.
David Baldacci
Stone Cold
Pan, £6.99, 4th,
9780330450980
This is the first
of two Baldacci
paperbacks this
year. Macmillan
will invest heavily
to better his first-ever Sunday
Times top five last time out.
Jeff Abbott
Run
Sphere, £6.99, 3rd, 9780751539783
Panic established Abbott as
a major player in the thriller
market with sales approaching
400,000. This fantastic story of
a widower drawn unwittingly
into an international conspiracy
should delight his new fans.
Rose Tremain
The Road Home
Vintage, £7.99, 3rd,
9780099478461
Although better
known for her
historical fiction,
Tremain’s
depiction of
life as an Eastern European
immigrant may well turn out
to be the literary hit of the
summer. Her elegant and
unfussy style works its magic
quite discreetly—awards are
overdue.
Simon Kernick
Deadline
Corgi, £6.99, 14th,
9780552156608
Transworld is
sticking with
paperback
originals for
Kernick following
his Richard & Judy-fuelled rise
to fame. Deadline is released
to coincide with his chairing
of this year’s Harrogate
Old Peculier Crime Writing
Festival—a mark of the rapid
AUTUMN PAPERPACK PREVIEW
respect he has gained from his
peers.
Alan Bennett
The Uncommon Reader
Faber/Profile, £6.99, 1st, 9781846681332
Hardback sales of this
endearing tale of the Queen
being bitten by the reading bug
were more than 200,000.
Russell Brand
My Booky Wook
Hodder, £7.99, 10th,
9780340936177
I think the reason
this was such a
hit last Christmas
is that many
readers wanted
something with a bit more
substance rather than the usual
ghostwritten cash-ins.
Eric Clapton
The Autobiography
Arrow, £7.99, 3rd,
9780099505495
As much an
account of a rock
star’s lifestyle
as a chronicle of
Clapton’s musical
projects, this sold 250,000 in
hardback across all sectors.
The paperback will become
core backlist.
Judy Westwater
Nowhere to Run
HarperElement, £6.99,
7th, 9780007266647
The continuing
traumatic
autobiography of
the author of the
250,000-selling
Street Kid. In hardback this was
titled Street Kid Fights On.
BESTSELLERS
Louise Candlish
The Second Husband
Sphere, £6.99, 3rd,
9780751539882
Little, Brown
has now sold six
figures of the
reissued Since
I Don’t Have
You. This paperback original,
another issues-based read
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