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Khaled Hosseini and Ken Follett Are the Most Popular Writers in the World, According to Publishing Trade Magazines

Riverhead’s Khaled Hosseini and Dutton’s Ken Follett have been recognized as the most popular writers globally, according to analysis of the 2008 international fiction bestseller lists published by book trade magazines, including The Bookseller (UK), Publishers Weekly (US) and Livres Hebdo (France).

Hosseini and Follett are the only two writers in the world to have books in the Top 10 fiction lists in seven of nine countries where data was charted. In total, the analysis tallied 387 writers in the Top 10 fiction charts of the nine countries included—France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, China, Spain, Sweden, UK and the US. Only 48 writers had Top 10 hits in more than one territory, with fewer, just 21 authors, charting in three countries or more, making Hosseini’s and Follett’s rankings even more impressive.

To read more information included in the analysis as reported in The Bookseller, click here: here.

Penguin Young Readers Group Will Publish First Authorized "Pooh" in More Than 80 Years

Dutton Children’s Books will publish the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner, entitled Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, to be released October 5th 2009. The announcement was made on Friday and received strong media attention over the weekend, including coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York 1, USA Today and The Associated Press, which was picked up by newspapers and websites across the country.

Michael Brown, for the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, who manage the affairs of the A. A. Milne and E.H. Shepard Estates said, “We have been hoping for a good many years that we might one day be able to offer the world a sequel which would do justice to the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories. The original books were one of the greatest celebrations of childhood in any language, but we believe that David Benedictus and Mark Burgess have captured the spirit and quality of those original books. We hope that the many millions of Pooh enthusiasts and readers around the world will embrace and cherish these new stories as if they had just emerged from the pen of A. A. Milne himself.”

David Benedictus’s manuscript was inspired by his familiarity with Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures after having worked on Audio CD adaptations of previous Winnie-the-Pooh stories. David has collaborated with illustrator Mark Burgess to create what is sure to become another treasured Winnie-the-Pooh book.

Author David Benedictus is delighted to be working on this exciting new project:

“It’s an honour to have my sequel to the original stories approved by the Pooh Trustees. I hope that the new book will both complement and maintain Milne’s idea that whatever happens, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”

Don Weisberg, President of Penguin’s Young Readers Group commented, “Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin are an integral part of so many children’s reading experience. We are privileged to be part of this adventure to bring new tales to a generation of young people in the United States.”

Riverhead’s Steven Galloway Wins 2008 Borders Original Voices Award

Borders announced its 2008 Borders Original Voices Awards yesterday, naming Riverhead author Steven Galloway the winner in the best fiction category for his novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo. The award honors compelling and ambitious written works by new and emerging talents. Inspired by a true story, The Cellist of Sarajevo captures the brutality of war, the redemptive power of music, and the triumph of the human spirit. Members of the Borders Original Voices selection committee called Galloway’s novel, "a haunting story of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people trying to find and retain their humanity in the midst of war and siege. The Cellist of Sarajevo is beautifully written, unforgettably moving and impossible to put down."

Galloway will receive $5,000 from Borders in recognition of his achievement. In addition, his book, which Riverhead will release in paperback this April, will be featured in Borders stores nationwide.

Portfolio Acquires Major Book About Bernard Madoff

Portfolio has acquired Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by Erin Arvedlund, a journalist who in 2001 wrote one of the first critical articles about Bernard Madoff, the recently indicted financier. Publication is planned for the spring of 2010.

Arvedlund's book, combining narrative and analysis, will share the same title as her May 2001 article in Barron's - one of the first to ask tough questions about Madoff's surprising results and unusual practices. That article, based on a four-month investigation and hundreds of interviews, was recently cited in an SEC complaint.

Arvedlund has spent most of the last 10 years covering Wall Street for Barron's, TheStreet.com, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. She recently wrote "Innocence Lost" for the website of Conde Nast Portfolio (no relation to the book publisher), about how, amid a boom in hedge funds, simple due diligence could have uncovered Madoff's fraud. She has also worked in the hedge fund industry and brings that experience to bear on the book.

"I look forward to expanding my early reporting into a much broader narrative," said Arvedlund. "My book will answer the question of WHY Madoff did what he did, and HOW he crossed over from a legitimate Wall Street brokerage and trading firm into a massive hedge fund that faked its results."

"We're delighted to have the first book by this talented and prescient reporter," said Portfolio President and Publisher Adrian Zackheim. "Our plan is to publish the definitive Madoff narrative, in the tradition of classics like The Smartest Guys in the Room and When Genius Failed. Erin's book will be read for years after the current headlines have faded."

Sookie Stackhouse Takes Home a Golden Globe Award

Anna Paquin, who plays telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse in HBO’s True Blood, took home the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama this past Sunday, January 11th. The super successful first season of the show is based on Charlaine Harris’ New York Times-bestselling novel Dead Until Dark. HBO plans to continue the series with season two premiering later this year. To see a video of Paquin accepting her award as well as the complete list of nominees and winners, visit the Golden Globes website here.

Fans just can’t get enough of Charlaine and Sookie. Dead Until Dark and the other books in the series continue their run on several bestseller lists including The New York Times and USA Today. The recently released Sookie Stackhouse boxed set has also made the USA Today list. Charlaine kicked off 2009 with a sold-out event in Houston sponsored by Murder by the Book and a full-page feature in the Houston Chronicle. More interviews are lining up in anticipation of the next book in the series, Dead and Gone, which will be released from Ace in May.

Watch a trailer for the HBO original series "True Blood".

Penguin Young Readers Group Offers Free ebook of Book One in John Flanagan’s New York Times Bestselling Ranger’s Apprentice Series

To reach a new audience of readers, Penguin Young Readers Group will offer a free downloadable eBook of the first book in the popular New York Times bestselling fantasy middle grade series Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan from January 15th – February 15th. To get the word out, Penguin Young Readers will run an ad campaign on the online game site, Addicting Games. Retail sites such as Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and Borders.com will offer the eBook and websites and bloggers will also be offered the eBook promotion.

The Ranger’s Apprentice series, published by Philomel books in hardcover and Puffin books in paperback, has sold more than one million copies since first being published in June 2005. The series spends weeks on The New York Times bestseller series list and is sold in eighteen countries.

Ranger’s Apprentice is an epic fantasy adventure that feels grounded in history. Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan is the first book and introduces readers to the protagonist of the series. Will is a foundling who is adopted into the mysterious and secretive Ranger corps that uses stealth, archery, and courage to defend the kingdom. With fast pacing, cinematic battle scenes, sympathetic characters and heart-stopping drama, readers being introduced to the Ranger’s Apprentice series will eagerly await the next installment.

A Flurry of Media for Perez Hilton’s Red Carpet Suicide

True to his moniker as the “Queen of All Media,” internet gossip Perez Hilton flooded the media last week to promote his new book, Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping Up with the Hiltons, just released from Celebra. Perez made appearances on NBC’s “Today Show,” ABC’s “The View,” CBS’s “The Early Show,” and Sirius Satellite Radio ’s “Howard Stern Show,” among others, and feature stories have run in USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Minneapolis Star-Tribune. An average of 300-500 fans have turned out for each of his book signings so far.

Back home in L.A., Perez will visit Craig Ferguson's late-night TV show, chat with popular radio host Ryan Seacrest, and go one-on-one with Chelsea Handler on her show "Chelsea Lately." He will then sign copies of his book at Barnes & Noble at The Grove, where another famous Hilton—Paris—is expected to attend.

Rave Reviews for Viking’s Debut Novel The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee (Viking) has been on sale for just a few days, and already the debut novelist has hit the ground running with a 4-star review in People, as well as wonderful reviews in O magazine; Marie Claire; Body + Soul; and a three-page feature in Elle, which make you want to start reading the book immediately.

The Chicago Tribune raved, “Evocative, poignant and skillfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary.” As The Boston Globe also reports, “Janice Y.K. Lee delivers a standout debut.”

The Piano Teacher also received nice reviews from The New York Times Book Review and The Miami Herald, just to name a handful, in addition to an interview in The Wall Street Journal. With a great tour in full effect, we are sure to see this novelist make an incredible splash over the next couple of weeks.

Watch the book trailer, listen to a podcast with the author, and read an excerpt from the book right from its book page.

Rough Guides' Ultimate Adventures Featured in Recent Associated Press Piece

An Associated Press article on “Travel Books to Plan Your Trips for 2009,” which featured an informational review of Ultimate Adventures: A Rough Guide to Adventure Travel received major pick-up across the nation. The piece has run in several newspapers across the country, reaching over 1.3 million readers to date.

To read the article, click here.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of January 25th

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of January 25th

For the week of January 25th, Star Bright by Catherine Anderson (Signet) debuts at #12 on the mass market fiction list, and From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (Ace) returns to the hardcover fiction list at #11 in its third week.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights:

On the hardcover fiction list, Black Ops by W.E.B. Griffin (G. P. Putnam’s Sons) is #3 in its second week; Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam’s Sons) is #4 in its sixth week week, and Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz (G. P. Putnam’s Son’s) is #12 in its second week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, Why We Suck by Denis Leary (Viking) is #8 in its eighth week; and The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson (The Penguin Press) is #15 in its fifth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #3 in its seventh week; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin) is #8 in its second week; The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) is #10 in its 47th week; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead) is #13 in its nineteenth week; World Without End by Ken Follett (NAL) is #16 in its fourteenth week; and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #17 in its 200th week.

On the mass market paperback list, Murder Game by Christine Feehan (Jove) is #8 in its second week; The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts (Jove) is #9 in its seventh week; Betrayal by John Lescroart (Signet) is #13 in its second week; Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #14 in its eighteenth week; The Shooters by W.E.B. Griffin (Jove) is #15 in its second week; and T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (Berkley) is #16 in its seventh week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is #2 in its 102nd week; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #8 in its 103rd week; and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #13 in its 69th week.

On the advice, how-to, and miscellaneous paperback list, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) returns to the list at #9 in its 48th week.

In the young readers sector, on the children’s picture books list, Brava, Strega Nona!, written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola (Putnam) is #7 in its eighth week. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Razorbill) is #7 in its twelfth week on the children’s chapter books list. On the children’s paperback books list; Slam by Nick Hornby (Riverhead) is #7 in its fourteenth week, and while Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (Razorbill) is #9 on the children’s series list in its fifth week.

New This Week

The Element by Ken Robinson, PhD (Viking, on-sale now)

Ken Robinson, PhD, international leader in education, business and creativity, is the author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, on sale from Viking this week. According to Ken Robinson, the power of human imagination has been nearly destroyed. What we need to find to rescue our schools and economy from a human resources crisis is the point where our natural abilities and personal passions meet—the point he calls the Element. In this revolutionary book, Robinson uses personal stories of those who have found their Element, often overcoming difficulties to do so, to provide an essential strategy for transforming education and business to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In a rave review, Publishers Weekly calls The Element “a rich vision of human ability and creativity…motivating and persuasive…entertaining and inspiring.” He will be appearing on “Huckabee” on Fox News this weekend. Robinson spoke to standing room only crowd at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble this week and has nine events to go on his book tour.

The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto (Avery, on-sale now)

The Body Fat Solution is the ultimate plan for permanent weight lost. Tom Venuto, a fat loss expert, nutrition researcher, and natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, is the author of the most successful e-book on fitness ever released. In The Body Fat Solution, Venuto expands and improved his program from e-book form in his first full health and wellness lifestyle guide.

Upcoming media highlights include: inclusion in fitness round-up in O magazine, a feature in First for Women, "Frankie Boyer," "America Tonight," Wall Street Journal online, an ongoing blog tour, and much more.

For more on Tom Venuto and The Body Fat Solution, click here.

The Numbers Game by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot (Gotham, on-sale now)

In The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life, Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot - the Strunk & White of statistics - help the average person navigate the numbers in the news. Blastland and Dilnot entertain and convert mathphobes by showing how everyday experiences make sense of numbers wherever they may appear.

The Numbers Game appeared in a featured New York Post article with lots of fun math facts, such as…

• $1,800: Amount the average American's taxes would increase if his cuts were rescinded, George Bush argued this year. This is true, but averages can be skewed by a large sample that includes outsize earners - in fact, 80 percent would not have seen that big an increase.
• 4 out of 5: Number of Americans who call themselves "middle class." In fact, the middle 20 percent of households in the US make between $38,000 and $60,000 a year. The middle 60 percent make between $20,000 and $97,000.
• 35%: Percent of all income tax paid by the top 1 percent of earners. But in surveys, most people tend to underestimate the amount, just as they tend to overestimate the number of illegal immigrants (they're only 0.3 percent of the US population) and underestimate abortions (335,000 per every million live births in 2006). Political beliefs exaggerate or diminish the perception of issues.

Major media is ongoing, including Time.com, and a national radio tour hitting a number of local stations along the way. Radio highlights include Wisconsin Pubic Radio/"Here on Earth" and "Morning Edition." There will also be an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, with much more to come.

New Next Week

Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo (Riverhead, 1/22)

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly praises Blonde Roots as "an astonishing, uncomfortable and beautiful alternative history. Evaristo’s intellectually rigorous narrative constantly surprises, and, for all the barbarism on display, it’s strikingly human. [Blonde Roots] is a powerful, thoughtful reminder that diabolical behavior can take place in any culture, 'safety' is an illusion and freedom is something easily taken for granted. This difficult and provocative book is a conversation sparker."

Blonde Roots portrays a world in which the roles of Europeans and Africans in the transatlantic slave trade are reversed. In this retelling, the cruelty and horror of the Middle Passage, the auction block, and the methods used by slave masters to deter escape are familiar images as Evaristo forces readers to contemplate a world in which white people are bought and sold, tortured, and separated from their loved ones, all for the sake of profit.

Already critically acclaimed in the U.K., early response the novel in the U.S. has been overwhelmingly positive. A review ran in the January issue of Elle, which raved, "Bernardine Evaristo boldly turns history on its head… [she] vividly depicts the dehumanizing, soul-shrinking effects of unchecked power over others. Doris is a smart, plucky heroine, and we fervently root for her to make a break for freedom, even at the risk of her life." Reviews are also set to run in More and Essence magazines. Other publicity includes a review and feature in the Wall Street Journal, and reviews in the Washington Post Book World, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The book has also been reviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" and the author will be a guest on several shows on NPR affiliates around the country.