SPRING PAPERBACK PREVIEW
A first novel about a family of
rug-makers in 17th-century
Iran. I’ve not read anything as
vivid for a while.
Keith Allen
Grow Up
Ebury, £7.99, 3rd, 9780091910716
The lovable rogue sold 20,000
in hardback and the paperback
should sell well to fans of Mr
Nice or With Nails.
Tom Sykes
What Did I Do Last
Night?
Ebury, £7.99, 3rd,
9780091916558
Author Plum
Sykes’ brother
reaches an
alcoholic nadir
and remembers enough to
write a James Frey-like memoir.
The jacket is one of the best
since design team Kai and
Sunny got their hands on David
Mitchell.
Jessica Callan
Wicked Whispers
Penguin, £6.99, 24th, 9780141030838
Full of indiscreet revelations
for the Heat magazine market
and ideal for fans of Imogen
Edwards-Jones’ Babylon
franchise.
John Major
More Than a Game
Perennial, £9.99, 7th,
9780007183654
This sold 30,000
in hardback,
but my reader
felt that some
fascinating
research was left as little more
than a rather lumpy anthology
of aristocratic anecdotes.
ONES TO WATCH
Tahmima Anam
A Golden Age
John Murray, £7.99, 3rd, 9780719560101
My reader adored this
Guardian and Costa-shortlisted
début and was happy to
compare it to The God of Small
Things and Brick Lane.
Sarah Hall
The Carhullan Army
Faber, £7.99, 3rd,
9780571236602
This exquisitelywritten
dystopian tale
from a former
Man Bookershortlisted
author will appeal
to many, particularly fans of
Atwood and Lessing.
Adrian Tinniswood
The Verneys
Vintage, £9.99, 3rd, 9781844134144
Shortlisted for the Samuel
Johnson Prize, this title
explores the lives of the 17th
century’s most motley family,
the Verneys. This is a great
bit of narrative history and I
enjoyed just dipping into it.
Karen Connolly
The Lizard Cage
Vintage, £7.99, 6th,
9780099502470
Winner of the
Orange First
Novel prize,
this account of
contemporary
Burma certainly has the
potential appeal of something
like The Kite Runner or In the
Country of Men.
MAY
GIANTS
Martina Cole
Faces
Headline, £7.99, 29th,
9780755328642
The hardback benefited from
ad slots in “Coronation Street”
and similarly high-profile
activity should help Cole’s sales
climb even higher than the
current 500,000.
Kathy Reichs
Bones to Ashes
Arrow, £6.99, 1st,
9780099492368
Random House
will crosspromote
with
DVDs of the
Sky One series,
“Bones”, based on Reichs’
books. With sales already
nearing 400,000, Reichs should
just be able to stay ahead of
Karin Slaughter.
James Patterson & Maxine
Paetro
The 6th Target
Headline, £7.99, 15th, 9780755330379
The latest in the Women’s
Murder Club series and his last
adult title for Headline.
Minette Walters
The Chameleon’s Shadow
Pan, £6.99, 2nd, 9780330449557
The queen of the psychological
thriller is on top form, as usual.
www.thebookseller.com The Bookseller Spring Paperback Preview | 4 January 2008 19
Macmillan will hope to break
the 200,000 barrier.
Chris Ryan
Strike Back
Arrow, £6.99, 22nd, 9780099492153
His last, Ultimate Weapon, with
270,000 copies shifted, outsold
Andy McNab in paperback for
the first time. A gritty new look
should help him see off the
competition again.
Sheila
O’Flanagan
Bad Behaviour
Review, £6.99, 1st,
9780755332182
O’Flanagan’s
last title, Yours,
Faithfully, saw a
jump in sales of
25% to around 250,000.
Jackie Collins
Drop Dead Beautiful
Pocket, £6.99, 6th, 9781416502203
In B-format for the first time
and with a glamorous new look,
the welcome return of Lucky
Santangelo should see close to
250,000 sales.
Jeffery Deaver
The Sleeping Doll
Hodder, £6.99, 1st, 9780340833865
Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme thrillers
are always ingenious. This new
series, featuring FBI expert
Kathyrn Dance, should win his
fans over at the first attempt.
Jack Higgins
The Killing Ground
Harper, £6.99, 6th, 9780007223688
A Sean Dillon thriller, which
will please his fans. Higgins has
the sort of brand identity new
thriller writers dream of.
Bernard Cornwell
Sword Song
Harper, £6.99, 6th, 9780007219735
Set in the time of Alfred the
Great, this is Cornwell’s fourth
title and sales are approaching
the levels of his Sharpe series.
Erica James
Tell It to the Skies
Orion, £6.99, 1st,
9780752893365
Sales should
grow—especially
with a marketing
campaign aimed
more at the mass
market than previously.
Jenny Tomlin
The Garage at Number 49
Arrow, £6.99, 22nd, 9780099509837
PRODUCT PREVIEW
With sales of Behind Closed
Doors well over 300,000, Tomlin
follows Jane Elliot and Torey
Hayden into the realm of fiction.
Alexander McCall Smith
The World According to Bertie
Abacus, £6.99, 1st, 9780349120539
Sales are slipping slightly for
the 44 Scotland Street series, of
which this is the fourth, but sixfigure
sales are still probable.
Ben Elton
Blind Faith
Black Swan, £6.99, 18th, 9780552773904
Elton returns to satire following
sales of 200,000 for The First
Casualty. I think he has his bite
back.
Joseph O’Connor
Redemption Falls
Vintage, £7.99, 1st, 9780099481522
To follow up “Richard & Judy”
success with hardback sales of
50,000 is remarkable. He’s an
unlikely giant, but O’Connor
has worked hard to appeal to
his new fanbase.
Billy Hopkins
Whatever Next!
Headline, £6.99, 1st, 9780755336425
This is the third instalment
of Hopkins’ fictional
autobiography. Great at selfpromotion
and just right for the
Bill Cullen market.
Jeremy
Clarkson
Don’t Stop Me Now
Penguin, £7.99, 1st,
9780141026114
The mouthpiece
of middle
England has sold
1.4 million of his
first title and high six figures of
each since.
Sharon Osbourne
Survivor
Sphere, £7.99, 1st, 9780751540543
With Extreme selling more than
a million copies in the end, this
has a lot to live up to. But the
nation has taken the “X Factor”
judge to their hearts and will be
hungry for more.
Chris Moyles
The Difficult Second Book
Ebury, £7.99, 1st,
9780091922443
The man who revitalised
breakfast radio seems to be
taking the book world by storm
too. The Gospel According
to Chris Moyles sold 200,000
copies.
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.