Elektra Press

David Cadji-Newby used to get an email alert every time a copy of his personalised picture book was bought from his website. There would be just a few a day, until, shortly before Christmas in 2013, sales suddenly took off.“My email was going ‘ping, ping, ping’, I thought it was broken. I was thinking ‘oh my God, what’s happening?’” said Cadji-Newby. The book, a beautifully illustrated hardback which creates a personalised story around the letters of a child’s name, has now sold 500,000 copies to date, according to its publishers.

via Personalised picture book becomes runaway bestseller | Books | The Guardian.

A FURTHER 68 INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOPS HAVE BEEN GRANTED £120,000 FROM THE ORIGINAL £250,000 FUND ANNOUNCED IN JUNE 2014Bestselling author and bookshop devotee, James Patterson, has announced the second round of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland to receive grants following his pledge to donate £250,000 in June 2014. Over £130,000 has already been allocated to 73 independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland following the first round of applications in September 2014. The remaining grant allocation of £120,000 has now been allocated to a further 68 bookshops, enabling even more initiatives to get underway that will help get children reading.

via Book Trade Announcements – James Patterson Announces A Further £250,000 Donation To Independent Bookshops In The UK And Ireland Taking His Total Donation To £500,000.

Simon & Schuster UK is reviving 150-year-old imprint Scribner. After 10 years “lying dormant” in the UK, and 150 years after it first began, Scribner will relaunch in June.

The imprint—which continues to flourish in the US, where it enjoys a strong brand—will publish six to 12 titles a year, beginning with the paperback of Graham Swift’s England and Other Stories on 4th June. Three novels in hardback follow: Tim Lott’s The Last Summer of the Water Strider (18th June); Benjamin Wood’s The Ecliptic (July); and Alice Hoffman’s The Marriage of Opposites (August).

via S&S UK revives Scribner | The Bookseller.

As the Badger basketball team headed into the NCAA Final Four games two weeks ago, a librarian named Anna Lewis launched a crowdfunding page to give an “off-court assist” to another prized University of Wisconsin property: the Dictionary of American Regional English. “DARE is in danger. Their funding has nearly run out,” the page warned. By the following week, the campaign had raised $4,000. But that is a fraction of the $425,000 that chief editor Joan Houston Hall says she needs to continue this half-century-long project to study how Americans talk. Unless a benefactor appears, what American Dialect Society executive secretary Allan Metcalf recently called the “greatest American lexicographical project of the latter 20th century” is scheduled to wind down in June.

via Dictionary of American Regional English out of funds – Books – The Boston Globe.

The Midtown West office of India-born, British-educated Sonny Mehta, 72, reflects his cosmopolitan upbringing and eclectic literary tastes. A vintage cricket bat is propped in a corner, while a Bill Clinton bobblehead rests on his coffee table (Knopf published the president’s memoir). On the floor-to-ceiling bookcases, Fifty Shades of Grey, Toni Morrison, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Graham Swift can be found on the shelves. It’s an unsurprising mix for an editor long known for an equally good eye for both high- and lowbrow fare.

“What can I say? I’m a book junkie,” chuckles Mehta, who personally edits about 10 out of 120 books put out annually by Knopf, a division of the world’s largest publishing company, Penguin Random House, which boasted $3.6 billion in 2014 revenue.

via Knopf Editor Sonny Mehta Keeps ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ on His Office Shelves – Hollywood Reporter.

John Green still vividly recalls the opening line of a stinging critique that his editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel, delivered after reading an early draft of his novel “The Fault in Our Stars.”“The first sentence was, ‘I really enjoyed reading the first draft of this promising and ambitious novel,’ and the rest was 20 pages of her tearing it apart,” Mr. Green said. “Her editorial letters are famous for their ability to make you cry and feel anxious. They’re very long, very detailed and very intimidating.”

via Her Stinging Critiques Propel Young Adult Best Sellers – NYTimes.com.

The sports-bro solidarity has been achieved: Jeter Publishing, Derek Jeter’s publishing partnership with Simon and Schuster, announced that it will publish a book by Rob Gronkowski. It’s Good to be The Gronk, which is apparently really what they’re calling it, will “take the reader from the locker room to the VIP room,” according to a press release.

via Derek Jeter’s publishing house will publish Rob Gronkowski’s book | For The Win.