AUTUMN PAPERPACK PREVIEW
campaign to attract TV fans of
the duo.
Matt Dunn
Ex-Girlfriends United
Pocket, £6.99, 6th, 9781847390684
The storyline of a womaniser
brought down by his exes
should appeal widely and may
build on sales of 80,000 each for
his first two.
Elizabeth
Chadwick
A Place Beyond
Courage
Sphere, £6.99, 16th,
9780751539011
In women’s
historical fiction,
the 12th century
is the new 16th. The switch
to B-format and a new look
should help Chadwick beat her
previous peak of 50,000 sales.
Geraldine
Brooks
People of the Book
HarperPerennial, £7.99,
6th, 9780007177424
The followup
to March,
which gained
the unique dual
accolade of Richard & Judy
selection and a Pulitzer Prize.
My reader found this well
researched and lucidly written.
Dark Horse
John Francome
Headline, £7.99, 2nd,
9780755337279
Consistent
sales of 60,000
make Francome
an impressive
perennial runnerup
to Dick Francis.
Monty Don
Around the World in 80 Gardens
Phoenix, £9.99, 16th, 9780753823187
Orion is giving him the Palin
treatment in B-format. The
hardback sold 60,000 despite
the use of oddly small photos,
so I doubt paperback sales will
suffer through any illustrative
shortfall.
David Kynaston
Austerity Britain
Bloomsbury, £9.99, 6th, 9780747585404
After 16,000 hardback sales,
this has been split into two
paperbacks, released in March
and July, but in response to
demand from booksellers
Bloomsbury is restoring the
single-volume format.
Luke Bradbury
Adventures of a Gigolo
Avon, £6.99, 6th,
9781847561084
Belle du Jour’s successful TV
transfer indicates no flagging in
the market for erotic memoirs.
This sweetly saucy male
perspective should plug a gap
in the market.
Leah Fleming
Orphans of War
Avon, £5.99, 6th,
9781847560230
A warmly
nostalgic story
of friendships
forged in
adversity among
a group of war-time evacuees to
Yorkshire.
Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Headline Review, £7.99, 2nd,
9780755341696
With sales of Wicked reaching
more than 120,000 and another
couple of Oz titles signed up,
Headline are confident that
the stepsister’s story will draw
people back to Cinderella’s tale.
Sameem Ali
Belonging
John Murray, £6.99, 2nd, 9780719564628
The topic of forced marriages
has been covered in the past
by, for example, Forbidden
Love and Jack & Zena, but this
topical account slots neatly into
the misery memoir market.
Stephen Donaldson
Fatal Revenant
Gollancz, £8.99, 9th, 9780575082397
The Runes of the Earth sold
nearly 60,000 and his patient
fans should ensure similar
sales of the second in The
Last Chronicles of Thomas
Covenant cycle.
Alan
Titchmarsh
England, Our
England
Hodder, £7.99, 2nd,
9780340953037
Released at the
same time as
his new novel,
his first with Hodder, this is a
nice, cosy offering for the gift
market.
ONES TO WATCH
Susan Hill
The Man in the Picture
Profile, £6.99, 30th, 9781846681349
www.thebookseller.com The Bookseller Autumn Paperback Preview | 6 June 2008 21
This little gothic treat sold
25,000 last Halloween, so
Profile is repeating the timing
for the paperback.
Chris Bohjalian
The Double Bind
Pocket, £7.99, 6th, 9781847391933
I loved this literary thriller
which reminded me strongly
of Maggie O’Farrell’s The
Vanishing of Esme Lennox.
Already big in the US, Simon &
Schuster is rightly very excited
about him.
Alex Chance
The Final Days
Arrow, £6.99, 23rd, 9780099515463
Arrow compares its major new
author for autumn to Thomas
Harris and James Patterson,
but this falls well short,
although it’s certainly written
for the American market.
I’m baffled to discover this
came from the more literary
Heinemann imprint.
Linwood Barclay
No Time For Goodbye
Orion, £6.99, 2nd, 9780752888613
Orion thinks this début is
worthy of “giant” status and will
mount a massive campaign to
back it. It’s certainly a hell of a
page-turner—Nicci French and
Harlan Coben are the obvious
comparisons.
Tim Pritchard
Street Boys
HarperElement, £6.99, 1st, 9780007267064
With the media currently
preoccupied with “feral”
children, this account of an
estate gang is highly topical.
Michael Stanley
A Carrion Death
Headline, £7.99, 2nd,
9780755344062
Beautifully
packaged, this
is Africa seen
through the eyes
of someone a
little more world-weary than
Mama Ramotswe of the No.1
Ladies’ Detective Agency. It’s
also a first-class mystery.
John Barrowman
Anything Goes
Michael O’Mara, £7.99, 9th,
9781843173335
Captain Jack’s autobiography
has sold 30,000 in hardback
and the continuing success
of “Doctor Who” and
“Torchwood” bode well for the
paperback.
PRODUCT PREVIEW
NOVEMBER
GIANTS
John Grisham
The Appeal
Arrow, £7.99, 20th, 9780099481768
I’d imagine many Christmas
shoppers might pop this, his
first courtroom thriller for
three years, into the basket as
a reward to themselves. His
first time at £7.99, which means
supermarkets will be selling
him for a full pound less than
the cost price to many indies.
Danielle Steel
Amazing Grace
Corgi, £6.99, 3rd, 9780552154734
A Good Woman is a
simultaneous hardback
release. She’s one of those
authors who’s ASP is so low
that indies increasingly don’t
bother with her.
BESTSELLERS
Mo Hayder
Ritual
Bantam, £6.99, 17th, 978053817942
The police diver featured will
be a recurring character and I
shudder to contemplate what
further horrors Hayder will
have her discover. She will now
produce a book a year.
Bernhard Schlink
The Reader (film tie-in edition)
Phoenix, £7.99, 11th, 978053823923
As with Atonement, I find this
“modern classic” seriously
overrated but, with 300,000 sold
and Oprah also picking up on it,
I realise I’m swimming against
the current. Ralph Fiennes and
Kate Winslet star and Oscars
will probably ensue.
Jack Higgins
Rough Justice
HarperFiction, £6.99,
3rd, 9780007276394
Reliably gripping
stuff from the
creator of Sean
Dillon.
Katie Flynn
Such Sweet Sorrow
Arrow, £6.99, 6th, 9780099521785
Just like Sunshine and Shadows
earlier in the year, the jacket
look is influenced by the
misery memoir market.
Meg Hutchinson
A Step Too Far
Hodder, £6.99, 27th, 9780340932995
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