MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
December 11 – December 18, 2008 Edition
Random House
CEO Celebrates
Authors And Editors
NEW YORK, NY (Authorlink News, December 11, 2008)Markus Dohle, the new CEO of Random House and member of the executive board of Bertelsmann AG, sent an uplifting message to his staff last week, calling attention to one of the brightest spots we’ve seen in publishing for a while. Authorlink applauds him for his words of encouragement during this especially challenging Holiday season. Dohle wrote:
“In these times, it is especially important to remember how highly the literary and cultural community worldwide regards Random House’s imprints and books. But even by the high standards the critics set for our works, the recognition our 2008 titles have just received from North America’s two most influential and widely read newspaper book-review sections is truly something for Random House to cheer about.
New York Times Book Review
Nine of the “Ten Best Books of the Year” selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review are ours!
They are:
DANGEROUS LAUGHTER by Steven
Millhauser (Knopf)
A MERCY by Toni Morrison (Knopf)
UNACCUSTOMED EARTH by Jhumpa Lahiri
(Knopf)
THE FOREVER WAR by Dexter Filkins
(Knopf)
NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF by Julian
Barnes (Knopf)
THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING by Drew
Gilpin Faust (Knopf)
THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS by Patrick
French (Knopf)
NETHERLAND by Joseph O’Neill (Pantheon)
THE DARK SIDE by Jane Mayer (Doubleday)
This is the first time in anyone’s memory here one single publishing company has so many of its titles appear as the “Best” in the same year. The complete list now is available online at the New York Times Website and will be printed in the Sunday, December 14 edition of The Book Review.
The Sunday, December 7 issue of The Book Review presents its annual “100 Notable Books of 2008,” and thirtyone of them are Random House, Inc. titlesnearly twice the number of the nearest competing publishing group. They range from AMERICAN WIFE by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House) and THE GOOD THIEF by Hannah Tinti (Dial Press) to FACTORY GIRLS: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang (Spiegel & Grau) and AMERICAN LION: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House). The entire list can be viewed by clicking: www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html Last month in The Book Review, PALE MALE: Citizen Hawk of New York City by Janet Schulman and Illustrated by Meilo So was cited as one of the ten “New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008.”
Toronto Globe and Mail Canada’s largest national daily annually selects the “Globe 100,” their book-review editors’ choices for the year’s best. For the 2008 list published last weekend, Random House of Canada is the publisher of twenty-two of them, leading their industry. Ten of the thirty-eight fiction titles, including THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO by Steven Galloway (Knopf Canada) and THE GREAT KAROO by Fred Stenson (Doubleday Canada), and twelve of the fifty-nine nonfiction, among them, WHAT IS AMERICA? by Ronald Wright (Knopf Canada) and A PLACE WITHIN by M.G. Vassanji (Doubleday Canada) are our honorees. The list of our titles can be viewed by clicking: http://www.randomhouse.ca/news/top100.html
These critical accolades are more than just words of praise. Our sales and marketing colleagues are working with our accounts across North America to enable our booksellers to enjoy the greatest of sales advantages from these selections, both immediately during this holiday season, and most importantly as future backlist. The Times also will be promoting their “Ten Best” list in national media interviews and via their forthcoming specially-created microsite.
What a powerful testimonial to the brilliance of our authors and the creativity of our imprint editors and publishers these year-end accolades are. Congratulations to all of you and to our authors!”
Authorlink Editor’s Note: Mr. Dohle’s words are as an encouraging sign that there are still those in the high places of publishing who value the creativity and hard work of producing intellectual content, and they see this work as fundamental to our social fiber–no matter what shapes it may acquire in the future. Thank you, Mr. Dohle.
