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News 16 January 2004
The Mainstream Sales Conference immediately prior to the Christmas
break saw the production of our new Spring / Summer catalogue.
It looks fabulous and should now have been mailed to everyone who
receives this newsletter.
It
is an extremely strong Spring list. We paid our highest ever advance
for SOLDIER FIVE and have just sold serial to
a leading newspaper for a substantial five figure sum. The
author will be coming to the UK from New Zealand for two weeks
around the time of publication on March 4th.
The
publicity campaigns for two other lead titles are being handled
by Colman Getty. Colman Getty is the high profile PR agency whose
clients include J K Rowling and Madonna and they will be dealing
with PICKING THE BONES (19th April) and THE
TROUBLE WITH ISLAM (5th April). Irshad Manji, author of
THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM, will be visiting the UK from 29th March
- 4th April and is already generating interest in the British press.
In THE INDEPENDENT of 12th January, columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
commented:
"there is a new polemic book about to hit Britain. THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM by Irhsad Manji, a Muslim lesbian from Canada is hot; hot with revolutionary questions, anger and challenges... We should read and debate it. We won't. Instead Manji will face the usual murderous threats for daring to write that 'Through our screaming self pity and conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves'"
Irshad has been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival and to speak at the Oxford Union.Nick Ryan, the author of HOMELAND, is the consultant producer of a BBC drama to be aired in two one hour parts on BBC 1 on the evening of Wednesday February 18th . He provided much of the background research for the drama about the far right and it should increase interest in HOMELAND. Routledge will publish HOMELAND in the US this May, our paperback edition will be published in March.
Another
BBC production which will generate interest in one of our books
is TAKING CARE. The documentary about children
in care will include a 40 minute interview with Paolo Hewitt about
his book THE LOOKED AFTER KID and will air on
either February 24th or 26th at 10.35pm on BBC 1. The BBC press
office are using Paolo to spearhead their PR campaign for the series
and have already arranged interviews in a leading Sunday newspaper
and on BBC Radio 2 with more to follow.
Christmas inevitably saw an increase in sales on the web site and
we now have a new on-line Top Ten including
specific bestseller lists for our Scottish and Sports books. WHITE
GOLD tops both the general and the Scottish lists with McCRAE'S
BATALLION a close second. Sport is headed by DAYS
LIKE THESE. We are poised to launch a new promotion for
Top Ten titles on our web site www.mainstreampublishing.com so
watch this space!
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And Finally...
Congratulations to Adèle Lang, author
of HOW TO SPOT A B*STARD BY HIS STAR SIGN who
found her Taurean bastard and married him just before Christmas!