Knopf’s High-End Print Package for ’1Q84′ Pays Off

 

1Q84

By Rachel Deahl

It’s just under a thousand pages. It’s a work in translation. It got a not-so-glowing review from the New York Times. Following standard publishing wisdom, even when you account for the sometimes cultish following Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has, his newest work, 1Q84, should not be the out-of-the-gate hit it is. But Knopf, which published the title late last month, has not only turned the book into a bestseller, it’s also managed to reverse another trend: it has made the book more popular in print than in digital.

According to numbers released by the publisher, the novel, which was at #2 on the Times bestseller list on November 13, has sold 75,000 copies in hardcover, and 25,000 in digital. Those impressive print sales are thanks, in large part, to an extravagant package that Knopf put together that has made the book the kind of object–beautiful and collectible–that readers want. And, more than likely, non-readers also want.

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Sonny Mehta to receive LBF Lifetime Achievement Award

| Katie Allen

Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief of Alfred A Knopf, is to be awarded the eighth Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing by London Book Fair.

Mehta has published authors including Thomas Mann, Willa Cather, Albert Camus, John Updike, Toni Morrison, V S Naipaul and Bill Clinton. He is also chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.                                                                      …read more 

Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 Coming from Knopf This October

Craig Morgan Teicher — January 31st, 2011

Fans of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami are cheering in the streets due to the news that Murakami’s magnum opus, 1Q84, will be published in English by Knopf on October 25, 2011.

The news came in the form of a tweet from Knopf publicity director Paul Bogaards, who, on Friday, wrote “Haruki Murakami’s long-awaited magnum opus, 1Q84, out from Knopf 10/25. In one volume. Booyah! Midnight store openings for this one?”   …read more

McClelland & Stewart to Publish Michael Ondaatje’s New Novel

McClelland & Stewart Publisher (Fiction) and Executive Vice President Ellen Seligman announced Michael Ondaatje’s highly anticipated new novel, The Cat’s Table, will go on sale on August 30, 2011.  It will be published in the fall in the US by Knopf and in the UK by Jonathan Cape. 

“I am completely blown away by Michael Ondaatje’s stunning and original new novel,” says Seligman.  “The Cat’s Table is a surprise and a sheer delight — a brilliantly told story, with unforgettable moments and characters the reader comes to care deeply about.  It is perhaps Ondaatje’s most thrilling and moving novel to date.”

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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange to Write His Memoirs

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cleared one legal hurdle last week when he was granted bail in the U.K. over sexual assault charges filed in Sweden. And as the embattled 39-year-old Australian hacker’s lawyers fight his extradition, he’ll be working on a memoir. The book will be published in the U.S. by Knopf, a division of Random House, and in the U.K. by Edinburgh-based Canongate.

 
See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/hVksYd