DAN BROWN NEVER FAR FROM NEWS - TWO REPORTS FROM THE BOOKSELLER

Rivals not 'clearing the deck' for Brown
26.04.09 Benedicte Page
Rival publishers took a philosophical approach to Dan Brown's sudden arrival on the autumn schedule. Headline deputy m.d. Kerr McRae said the publisher would not be changing its release dates to avoid a clash with The Lost Symbol. He said: "My view is that the Dan Brown phenomenon will bring people into shops and I will sell more of my authors' books because of him."
McRae added: "The question is, will Brown dominate the bestseller lists up to Christmas? We're on for the fight. We publish Martina Cole in her usual spot in mid-October; she'll be the main competition and we'll be aiming to sell more than ever."

HarperCollins group sales director David Roche also said that he expected the Brown effect to work for other authors. "If someone has one book at the top of their Christmas list, the chances are they will buy more books." He added that fiction is less important in relation to non-fiction in the Christmas market. Roche added: "We're not sitting in emergency planning meetings to reschedule books because of Dan Brown."

At Pan Macmillan, sales director Geoff Duffield said the publisher was viewing the news as a "strategic opportunity", given that The Lost Symbol would bring a massive media focus on books. He said: "We're not clearing the decks, but it would be futile to try to put one of your fiction brand authors up against Dan Brown. We are looking at our programme, and thinking how we can make the most of it." He added: "It will be an event."

Meanwhile Random House Group communications director Maureen Corish declined to comment on whether Random would reschedule its own autumn titles now that Brown is to be released. However, Cornerstone m.d. Susan Sandon said: "We've got an amazingly strong line-up of fiction, with Robert Harris, James Patterson and John Grisham, but it all seems to work and there's no clash of the Titans."


Retailers anticipate Dan Brown bonanza
24.04.09 Benedicte Page, Graeme Neill and Victoria Gallagher­

Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vinci Code has caused glee among retailers, with the new book rocketing up the pre-release charts, after being made available by Waterstone's and Amazon.co.uk immediately with a discount of 50%.
The Lost Symbol is to be released by Transworld on 15th September. The book hit the top of Waterstone's pre-order charts within 24 hours of the news breaking. Waterstone's head of fiction, Toby Bourne, said: "The book is good news because not only is it a guaranteed bestseller, it is one of those books that will bring in people who are not regular bookshop customers."
Amazon.co.uk's head of account management, Amy Worth, said: "We've already seen the title rise to number six in Amazon.co.uk's Hot 100 on customer pre-orders alone, and early indications are that it could become one of the bestselling hardback books ever, even rivalling the phenomenal demand witnessed for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

According to Nielsen BookScan, Brown's books have sold 11.7m copies and racked up more than £61m in sales in the United Kingdom alone since he was first published in 2003.
Despite the six-year gap between the publication of The Da Vinci Code and its sequel, Bourne said the public would still be excited by the adventures of Langdon. He said: "The Da Vinci Code is a book that has reached such a huge audience, and people have been asking for news of the new one for years. The Lost Symbol will be one of those novels that gets people—readers, critics, booksellers—talking about books and that is always a good thing."

Sainsbury's senior adult buyer Sharon Gurney said that the book could lead to sales of other titles. She added: "Anything that raises the profile of books in people's minds is great for bookselling."
Alex Milne-White, owner of the independent Hungerford Bookshop, said that while he expected the book to be discounted, it would still be worth stocking. He said: "Not stocking it would be shooting yourself in the foot."