Wide-Eyed And Bookish In the United Kingdom, Zoe Sugg—known as Zoella to her huge fan base—has pulled off the kind of book-sales numbers that most authors and publishers will never see. Her first book, Girl Online, became the biggest seller in its initial week of any novelist’s debut since BookScan began its data-gathering efforts. What that… Read More
Divisions and support at #AuthorDay
Open submissions, face-to-face feedback New developments in our Author Day (#AuthorDay) planning for 30th November are helping us to bring elements of practical author support, one-on-one networking, and advice into the mix alongside our issues-driven core discussions. Quickly: Publishers and editors from Pan Macmillan and from HarperCollins’ divisions Harper Fiction, The Borough Press and Harlequin will… Read More
At Frankfurt: Can books find true fans?
Fanning the flames When asking Pan Macmillan’s Naomi Bacon to join us at Frankfurt Book Fair’s Business Club for a discussion of “hardcore fandom” and books in our “Hug the Alien” series of events, I hadn’t counted on getting video in the bargain. But we got it, and it’s good stuff. Bacon, with the… Read More
New Trajectory partnerships include PanMac UK ebook distribution to China
‘A relationship with new English language readers’ Boston-based Trajectory has announced a suite of new partnerships, capped by one that will take the Pan Macmillan UKcatalog into China. “China is a key focus for Pan Macmillan,” said PanMac’s international director Jonathan Atkins in a prepared statement, “and we are very excited by the potential for growth… Read More
Picador Champions ‘Station Eleven’
“Hell Is Flutes” A writer who can pry that paraphrase from the jaws of Jean-Paul Satre’s “hell is other people” certainly has some chops. If she can then deliver it as a genuinely funny laugh line amid a global Huis Clos 20 years after the collapse of human civilization, she’s no slouch. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven may hand her… Read More
Pan Macmillan’s Lloyd at FutureBook Hack: “Ask what you can do for readers”
“I think we haven’t done the great things yet.” Are you an author? If so, would it surprise you to know that that line came from a publisher? It did, and Sara Lloyd, Pan Macmillan’s digital and communications director, was set on making sure that the participant-hackers of the first-ever FutureBook Hack understood that she… Read More