SPRING PAPERBACK PREVIEW
Fiona Neill
The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy
Arrow, £6.99, 31st, 9780099502883
This paperback original is
based on the author’s hugely
popular column in the Times.
With a huge marketing spend,
supermarket support and more
than a few closet male fans (me
included), sales of this should
exceed 200,000.
Kathleen
Tessaro
The Flirt
Harper, £6.99, 21st,
9780007215386
This paperback
original is a
smart piece of
literary chick lit
and Tessaro will be doing well
to match the 200,000 copies
sold of her début title, Elegance,
although the stylish cover will
attract new fans.
Dean Koontz
The Good Guy
Harper, £6.99, 7th,
9780007226603
Some of his
traditional
fans aren’t so
keen, but like
Velocity and
The Husband, this thriller with
a touch of the supernatural
is aimed squarely at the
mainstream.
Simon Kernick
Severed
Corgi, £6.99, 14th,
9780552153133
It’s tough to
follow 275,000
“Richard &
Judy”-led sales.
Still set to be a
Giant, although my gory crime
reader really struggled with this.
Jilliane
Hoffman
Plea of Insanity
Penguin, £6.99, 31st,
9780141024592
Hoffman has
everything
the leaders in
this field have,
including the legal background.
Sales of her second title fell just
short of her first, but Penguin is
planning TV ads for this one.
Mary Higgins Clark
I Heard That Song Before
Pocket, £6.99, 7th, 9781416502616
Higgins Clark’s last title, Two
Little Girls in Blue, saw an
increase in sales of 25% to more
than 150,000 copies on the back
of a new jacket style. Still bigger
in other territories, Simon &
Schuster now want to take her
into the top five.
John Harvey
Gone to Ground
Arrow, £6.99, 17th,
9780099489962
Since Arrow
publisher Susan
Sandon took over
editing Harvey
herself, his sales
have increased eight-fold. With
a smart new look, Random
House hope to boost him from
150,000 copies to as many as
200,000.
Sinéad Moriarty
In My Sister’s Shoes
Penguin Ireland, £6.99,
3rd, 9781844880690
Now becoming
a major figure
in the market
area led by
Cecelia Ahern,
Moriarty’s fourth title should
again see sales of more than
100,000 copies.
Khaled
Hosseini
The Kite Runner
(tie-in)
Bloomsbury, £7.99, 3rd,
9780747594888
This should be
available in time
for the release
of the film on 26th December
and Bloomsbury has sold 1.3
million across all formats in the
UK already.
Jenny Tomlin
Not Alone
Hodder, £6.99, 10th,
9780340922088
A third nonfiction
title from
one of the big
names in the
misery memoir
genre. Sales of Silent Sisters
were less than half of her first,
but I suspect this will do much
better.
BESTSELLERS
Tess Stimson
The Infidelity Chain
Pan, £6.99, 4th, 9780330445214
Macmillan is keen to build on
the success of The Adultery
Club and this should sell well
across the market.
www.thebookseller.com The Bookseller Spring Paperback Preview | 4 January 2008 11
Susan Arnout Smith
The Timer Game
Perennial, £6.99, 7th, 9780007265176
My reader felt that this blend
of “CSI” and “24” blew it all in
an implausible final act. But
a massive ad campaign,
which will include TV and
“webisodes” on YouTube,
may make this the giant
HarperCollins hopes for.
Jojo Moyes
Silver Bay
Hodder, £6.99, 24th,
9780340895931
Selling more than
50,000 copies,
The Ship of Brides
pushed this
former winner
of the Romantic Novelists’
Association’s Romantic Novel
of the Year Award up a notch,
and I’d expect this to match that
at least.
Judy Astley
Laying the Ghost
Black Swan, £6.99,
28th, 9780552773218
A zippy read
about tracking
down an ex.
This was the
first Astley to be
given a hardback release and
the paperback has a bright new
look too.
Mary Jane
Staples
A Wartime Marriage
Corgi, £6.99, 14th,
9780552150897
The late Mary
Jane Staples is
a regular in the
Sunday Times’
charts and, despite her recent
death, there are a few titles to
come after this.
Debby Holt
The Trouble with
Marriage
Pocket, £6.99, 7th,
9781416526766
Holt’s Annie
May’s Black Book
reached number
one in The
Bookseller’s Heatseekers chart.
Supermarkets and WHS Travel
have already reportedly placed
big orders for this.
Stuart MacBride
Broken Skin
Harper, £6.99, 7th, 9780007193189
The lurid third Logan McRae
thriller from the 2007 winner of
PRODUCT PREVIEW
the Crime
Writers’
Association
Dagger in the
Library award
features a preview
of his fourth title,
due in May.
Jane Elizabeth Varley
The Truth about Love
Orion, £6.99, 10th, 9780752893129
Varley has quietly established
herself as a favourite with
lovers of well-written family
sagas in the style of Joanna
Trollope.
Simon Scarrow
The Generals
Review, £6.99, 24th,
9780755324361
The superb
second in
Scarrow’s
quartet on
Wellington and
Napoleon. The first sold more
than 45,000 copies in A-format
and supermarkets have pledged
their support this time.
G W Dahlquist
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
Penguin, £7.99, 3rd, 9780141027302
The sumptuous hardback
gets an equally gorgeous
paperback. I’d expect this to sell
at least 50,000 copies, although
supermarket support could
double that.
Janine Latus
If I Am Missing or
Dead
Arrow, £6.99, 3rd,
9780099499596
This made
number four in
the Sunday Times’
bestseller charts
so Random House has high
expectations for the paperback.
Kristina &
Celeste Jones &
Juliana Buhring
Not Without My
Sister
Element, £6.99, 7th,
9780007248070
The 30,000
hardback copies
sold suggest this is one of the
standout titles in a very crowded
misery memoir market.
Rosemary Conley
Gi Hip & Thigh Diet
Arrow, £6.99, 3rd, 9780099517771
The tide seems to be turning
against faddy diets, so Conley
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