Story collection soars after Fry Tweet
A book of short stories has leaped up Amazon's book charts to become second only to Dan Brown after Stephen Fry endorsed it on his Twitter feed. 11.09.09 Catherine Neilan, The Bookseller.
Early today (10th September), the actor told his near-750,000 followers: "You will not read a more dazzling book this year than David Eagleman's Sum. If you read it and aren't enchanted I will eat 40 hats." The book subsequently rose by nearly 250,000% in the Movers & Shakers list.
Coincidentally, the author was also interviewed on "The Today Programme" this morning. However, Canongate publisher Jamie Byng said he thought it was the new medium that had propelled the book up the charts.
"'The Today Programme' is great, and can have an incredibly beneficial effect on books . . . there's no question it's fuelling it somewhat. But what has really done it, without a doubt, is Stephen's tweeting completely from the heart."
He added: "Sum's had great [print] reviews, but none of them have even had a fraction of the effect to what Stephen Fry did, even if you took all of them together . . . This is a lesson in how you can publish a book in a less conventional way, and suddenly it's paying dividends."
A further print run has been confirmed to meet renewed retailer demand, making 20,000 in print by the end of the month.
Filed Under: [Publishing]
Posted on 04 Nov 2009 around 10am