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If you love the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, you’ll either be excited or upset by the news that there will be a sixth book written in the series–not by Douglas Adams, who is dead, but by children’s author Eoin Colfer. Adams’ widow gave permission.

Adams had had plans to write a sixth book, saying that the fifth was bleak and that he planned to write the next on a slightly more upbeat note. But he didn’t have time to write it before he died. Colfer and Penguin haven’t released any details about the plot yet.

Colfer was a fan of the Hitchhiker books since his schooldays. He said that being given the opportunity to continue the series was “like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. “For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world. It is a gift from the gods.”

I think it’s a good thing Colfer loved the Hitchhiker works so much; perhaps he’ll be able to retain the voice.

This situation is similar to Budge Wilson writing the prequel to the beloved Anne of Green Gables series–working hard to keep the author’s voice and style, and the stories that arc the series. When it’s done well, it offers a gift to readers who love the series. When it’s not, well, there can be outraged fans.

What do you think about an author writing a book in a series where the original author has died?

Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the info.

It's been a busy fortnight here at Penguin Towers.

Two weeks ago we were contacted by the agent representing the estate of Douglas Adams who asked us if we might be interested in bidding for the right to publish a sixth installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to be written by Eoin Colfer. Needless to say we were and a crack team threw themselves into creating one of the best pitches anyone has ever seen. This (and a large-ish cheque) happily won us the rights to publish And Another Thing... and late last night we broke the news to the legions of fans of the Hitchhiker's series and the almost equally hardcore fans of Eoin's Artemis Fowl books.

We knew that there would be intense interest in this news and we wanted the fans to be the first people to hear it, so at 6pm last night we alerted them to these audio recordings which they quickly spread around the internet. 'Big media' grasped onto the story early this morning culminating in an appearance by Eoin Colfer on Radio4's Today programme.

Now, in the very brief lull between announcing this news and planning the delivery of the most exciting publishing event of 2009, we have a few moments to sit back and watch these most passionate of fans debate the merits of resurrecting the series.

Reactions have ranged from the ecstatic, to slightly concerned, to completely appalled via speculation that this might be part of an even deeper conspiracy. If you want to add to the noise, leave a comment below. We don't speak Vogon, but we do look forward to hearing from you.

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

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The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl, Book 5) by Eoin Colfer, Listening Library, 2006

Seriously, I could listen to Nathaniel Parker read stock reports, the city directory or the "terms of use" boilerplate that accompanies software installation packages.

He is wonderful.

Parker also reads the Young James Bond series which are so vivid in my mind now, I may never read the Higson books. I prefer to listen to them.

I'd never listened to an Artemis Fowl book before, and I did not even notice the name of the narrator. When I heard Parker's dulcet tones begin the book, I did a little happy dance around the house.

Artemis is on a mission to save the fairy world. The stoic Butler is still at his side. Artemis is feeling the effects of puberty which, hilariously, foil his concentration on occasion. While hunting demons, he encounters a new rival, the lovely Minerva Paradizo (oh, how I love Colfer's characters' names) who is the same age as Artemis and just as brilliant. She hopes to trap a fairy and impress the Nobel prize committee with her discoveries.

Holly Short has quit LEPRecon following the death of her old boss, Julius Root and now earns her living with Mulch Diggums, as a Lower Elements bounty hunter. She re-teams with Artemis and Foaly in order to save their world from an unstable time tunnel.

Colfer's books are action thrillers full of explosions, car chases and techno gadgetry. They are also packed with stacks of humor, witty dialog and topical references that keep them fresh. What keeps me coming back though, are the underlying ethical and moral issues that are at the core of the tales. The fun of the Artemis stories is how he remains a fast-thinking, law-bending, conniver with a conscience and a heart.

a novel by 10 authors

What a book. What a beautiful, thought-provoking book.

I will say that I didn't like the last two stories of the book, which was frustrating. All of the stories use metaphor and symbolism to varying degrees (some intentionally, some not) and I didn't care for the taste of the final two. I don't want that to discourage you from reading the book - the rest of the stories are wonderful, and perhaps you'll even enjoy them all.

It is a remarkable little book. On the surface, it contains ten stories; but there are stories within stories. It gives you this feel of depth and magnitude. Each story made me feel differently, and they all made me think. One even made me ache a little, it was so good.

This would be a great pick for a book club. There's loads of discussions in here waiting to happen. Oh - and it made me want to take up photography. Perhaps I will.

There now seem to be graphic versions of all sorts of previously published books either about to release or else already on shelves: Artemis Fowl, Coraline, Pendragon, Discworld. I'm thinking this just might be some sort of a trend.
Anybody noticed any other titles?

Here's the trailer for Eoin Colfer's new novel, Airman.

The novel gets a good review over at Fuse #8.
Here's a bit of what she says there:
Is it fantasy? No more than any historical novel where the hero indulges in science. Is it science fiction? Only if you consider the notion of one man discovering the use of propellers on his own fantastical. Is it steampunk? No. Stop being silly. No this is, odd as it may sound, fiction with spice. That's not really a category, so I don't know if you can call it anything but original.

I think we'll be needing this one. And incidentally, anyone who isn't in awe that Elizabeth Bird is doing a review a day and doing them darned well needs a slap upside the head with a good book.

I discovered another New Reality for children's authors the other day.

Authors have to write books, yes. They have to market themselves online, yes. They have to do school visits, yes. And now they have to be stand up comics.

It's all the fault of Artemus Fowl creator Eoin Colfer (pronounced 'Oh - when' - as in "OH? And WHEN am I supposed to find the time to get acting classes?") who packs in the crowds everywhere he tours.

I caught Colfer's show at the South Bank's Imagine Children's Literature Festival with four nine year old girls yesterday. Only one of the girls had ever read a Colfer book but by the time we left, each had an autographed copy of the The Wish List (the only Colfer book with a female - human - protagonist).

In the audience was a legion of little boys (all named Ben it transpired during the Q & A) - indeed Colfer's show was srongly targeted at boys and Dads with such themes as: "Reading Books with Explosives and Motorbikes on the Cover is Okay" and "When You Have the House to Yourself Do Not Hesitate to Build Ramps on Which to Practice Flying Your Bike Even If The Brakes Do Not Work". The girls and mums laughed like drains too.

I was inspired to see many heads bowed over books before and after the show.

We foolishly booked at the last minute so we only got seats at the back which were still great seats given that it was the Royal Festival Hall. But this meant we were the last people out and the end of the queue for Colfer's autograph.

Still the Festival organisers followed all the Rules To Make People Enjoy Queuing:


Rule 1. Provide children with an opportunity to deface something. This was the graffiti wall which the girls covered with jokes and, rather precociously, CND slogans.


Rule 2. After the children deface the wall, they can Blu-Tac random items to a blank wall, here, the kids stuck up some paper plates.


Rule 3. Provide technology to keep everyone amused. These were the special seats that told non-stop jokes.

We were still smiling when we reached the top of the queue.

Amazingly, so was Eoin Colfer, who had been exercising his autograph arm for 30 solid minutes.


He charmed the girls by asking them who the leader of their little group was and didn't even ask why one of them was dressed like a sherpa.

Once we'd extracted autographs we headed out to Giraffe where we rewarded ourselves with massive ice creams and a terrific view of the Thames.


This is the sort of total experience that readers expect of us.

I was terrified. But the Rocky Road Ice Cream tasted good anyway.

This definitely comes under the listing of tooting my own horn, but I'm hoping some of you will get a kick out of it. Thanks to the graphic design help of my brilliant sister Sarah...

You can now purchase your own Book Nerd T-shirt!

Just imagine -- bookish types walking around, all over the country, with their hair-band/L.A. gangster/motorcycle-mob typeface t-shirts, proclaiming their unrepentant book nerdism. It's a beautiful thing.


The Cafe Press thing is something I've been thinking about for a while, for a couple of reasons:

1) Several people have asked where they could get their own Book Nerd shirt like the one in my profile photo. Since that was something the ALP had custom-made for me, I didn't have anywhere to send them. Now I do.

1) I'll make a couple of bucks on the sale of each t-shirt, which will go straight into the Future Bookstore Fund. It's not likely to be a major source of funding, but the overhead price is right (i.e. nothing), and I figure it can't hurt to put it out there.

I know the prices are a little steep for t-shirts. The base price for Cafe Press apparel is high, but they do provide all of the infrastructure and product, and they've got a good reputation.

And hey -- you can get a shirt for just about the price of a hardcover book.

You've got your classic white-on-black option, and an organic white shirt with black lettering. Either one looks pretty darn cool.

Do let me know what you think, and especially if you've got ideas for other designs or products I should be offering. Hope you enjoy, my fellow book nerds!

When I heard that Eoin Colfer was going to be in Texas this past weekend, I cleared the calendar and prepared to drive 'where ever' in order to see him. Then my newsletter from Murder by the Book announced his visit here in H-Town, right in my own backyard.

In Eoin Colfer's video appearances and in interviews, he comes off as a very low key fellow. In person he is a riotously funny, sarcastic, quick, self-deprecating, and witty storyteller whose childhood adventures made for one of the funniest hours I have spent in a very, very, long time.

The fact that the entling and I relived his presentation, story by story, bit by bit, on the drive home was a testament to our enjoyment.

Colfer is on tour to promote his new book Airman. At least 160 people attended along with Radio Disney and a video crew (Airman is published by Hyperion, which is part of Disney & Co.) In honor of Airman, Colfer shared a "flying" story from his childhood (do all boys go through a bicycle ramp phase?) and a more recent story involving a parachute jump.

He did not do a reading from Airman, opting instead to take questions "because he didn't want to put people to sleep." He is obviously a veteran of kids' frequently vague and unfocused questions as he was able to take questions like the perennial "where do you get your ideas from?" and turn it into a very funny riff about going through Philip Pullman's trash bins.

When one young lady asked the question, "Is there a character in your books that is like you?" he was so grateful, he told her she was a genius. He allowed that he is probably a great deal like Foaly, the centaur in the AF world because he messes about with his computer and "makes smart remarks all day."

In response to the question about an Artemis Fowl movie , he announced that he will play "Butler," the ever vigilant and well muscled bodyguard to Artemis. He then shot wounded looks at the audience who greeted this statement with laughter. As for the timing of the film, he thinks it will finally come out "two weeks after I die."

He has an idea for a sequel to The Supernaturalist and hopes to start work on it next year. He has just completed Artemis #6 which will be called AF and the Time Paradox. The greatest paradox about AF, he added, was that it was supposed to be a trilogy "but then Mr. MasterCard called."

The success of Artemis allowed him to take a year to write Airman which is a story that has been kicking around in his imagination for at least 15 years. He added that "those islands" are visible from his parents home (dying to read it now and find out about "those islands.)

He spoke thoughtfully about the importance of folklore in Ireland and how teaching Irish mythology is actually part of the curriculum there. Listening to the stories was always the best part of his day as a student and reading them to a class was his favorite part of being a teacher, a job that he only quit seven years ago to be a full time writer. He pointed out that Artemis Fowl is essentially an update and twist on the oldest story in Ireland, a boy sets out to capture a leprechaun and steal his pot of gold.

His rapport with his fans was polite but personal. I was touched that he took time to visit and joke with the entling as he signed her books, even though the line was long.

Colfer's terrific presentation helped me think about what makes for a great author visit and I will write more about that soon. There are some folks I will travel afar to see and Eoin Colfer has now joined that pantheon

From Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which the ALP and I have been reading aloud:

"The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers' trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do."

Below Evan Schnittman shares his personal opinions on royalties and advances. This isn’t Oxford University Press’s official stance - but represents just one of the many opinions floating around our office on this very tricky subject. We hope that by sharing his views an open dialog can be initiated.

In his blog post Royalties Macmillan CEO Richard Charkin, posits that trade publishers and authors/agents would be well served if the standard for paying authors switched from a percentage of retail price to a percentage of gross earnings. He writes, “How about agreeing new equitable royalty rates based on real money not a notional recommended retail price?

Charkin also points out that, “The percentage is linked to a price which applies in only a minority of cases. It doesn’t apply to all sales overseas; it doesn’t apply to nearly all sales made in supermarkets, Internet bookshops and many bookshop chains.” In other words, paying on the percentage of a price that isn’t applicable to the majority of income isn’t logical or easy – which may lead to wildly confusing royalty statements.

As expected, within hours a series of rebuttals hit the comments field by individuals and groups rejecting Charkin’s notion as folly; stating the view that the retail price is the only thing that is transparent on publishers’ royalty statements, which are notoriously mysterious and murky at best.

While the debate will continue, it misses a far more important problem. (more…)

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Children's bookstore. A woman enters carrying her dog, four year old son in tow. All are wearing designer clothes. The sales associate greets them. "Do you have any classic Peter Pan?" The woman asks. The woman follows the sales associate but pauses as they reach the books in a spinner rack. The associate continues on toward the Classics section. She looks at the several editions available,

Just a brief review today, though this one deserves much more.

WHY WE BUY
by Paco Underhill
(Simon & Schuster, 1999)

I heard Paco Underhill speak at Book Expo last year, and my coworkers and I left the room gasping. A professional "shopping scientist," Underhill's insights into how customers actually interact with the bookstore sales floor had the astonishment of something that's been right under your nose all along. We did some serious rethinking of some of our displays and placements after that presentation, and have continued to keep his principles in mind when making changes in the physical bookstore.

But I'm lazy when it comes to reading anything other than fiction, so it took me until this past month when I found myself with a spurt of interest in practical nonfiction to finally pick up Underhill's most famous book. (The ALP had read both, and told me he preferred this one to its sequel, THE CALL OF THE MALL.) And I was utterly enthralled all the way through. As a retailer (especially one continuously designing the ideal bookstore in her head), it was especially relevant -- I turned down dozens of pages and underlined passages for future reference. But it was also fascinating from the perspective of a consumer. So THIS is why stores are set up that way, one thinks, along with, often, Do I really act like that?

Though it's often tempting to argue that MY consumer behavior doesn't follow these rules (i.e. I'm not such a sucker), Underhill's data is pretty undeniable. His company, Envirosell, has spend thousands upon thousands of hours actually observing shoppers in stores, and tabulating their behaviors (from how long they spend reading a sign to which way they turn upon entering a store to whether they pick up a shopping basket) into a complex rubric meant to help retailers work better. Did you know, for example, that most shoppers veer left when entering a store? Or that it takes everyone a few seconds to make the transition from outside to inside, so the first few feet of merchandise are often invisible? Or that the "butt brush effect" means that people (especially women) will not spend time at a table or aisle if they sense people too close behind them? Or that everyone -- everyone -- slows down when they pass a mirror but speeds up when they pass a bank?

These and a hundred dozen other observations are what make this a valuable book for retailers, and a head-shake-of-recognition inducing one for shoppers. And I felt a bit of divided loyalty reading it, especially knowing that Underhill works for some of the biggest corporate giants in the world. Is such analysis exploitative of consumers? Are retailers being encouraged to play psychological games with their customers to get them to spend money for things they don't really need? Is this contributing to our overspending, overconsuming, design-over-content Western society?

Maybe. But not necessarily. I was ultimately won over by Underhill's tireless advocacy for chairs or benches in stores: it's a sign of good faith, he says, and a gift to tired customers that he would replace many feet of selling space for. At best, this kind of analysis and response is about being good to customers -- making it easy on them, offering them the information they need effectively, giving them what they don't even know they want.

After all, books are luxury goods too -- no one "needs" them to survive, so the process of shopping for them is largely influenced by emotions, perceptions, atmosphere, etc. But I don't feel moral qualms about encouraging someone to buy one more, because I believe it's a good investment in terms of their own money and time and the culture at large. That the same principles can be applied to massive chain stores selling overpriced handbags or disposable diapers doesn't mean they don't work for indie bookstores. On the contrary, perhaps we booksellers have a responsibility to use newly discovered and evolving principles of shopping to ensure our own survival and bring customers into places of real value.

All my own internal arguing aside, Underhill's book is worth reading for anyone remotely interested in the retail world. His writing is sprightly and entertaining, and (aside from one chapter on Internet shopping that suffers from being written in 1999, before "Web 2.0", and looks a bit dated and silly now) always relevant. I enjoyed reading the book immensely, and I know that Chapter 18, an in-depth analysis of the customer-friendliness of a bookstore, is one I'll return to again and again when designing my own store.

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I'm off this morning to sell books at the PEN World Voices Festival, a wonderful week of readings and panels by international authors. Check out some of the offerings if you can -- most are free. Enjoy the week -- see you Friday.