Monday Means Moscow

I am waiting to board my flight to Moscow, in route to the Moscow International Book Fair. I will be joining a delegation that has been put together by the Dept. of Press and Mass Communications, over seen by Deputy Director Vladimir Grigoriev and also notably by Peter Kaufman and Svetlana Svetlana Adjoubiei of Academia Rossica. The well rounded
Delegation Includes ABA VP Steve Bercu from Bookpeople, Peter Mayer from Overlook Press, George Slowick, President of PW among many of the notable guests that are being hosted from the US. There is an ambitious program that it being presented at Moscow International Book Fair that is the first stage in planning leading up to BEA's Global Market Forum program in 2012 that will proudly feature Russia in our most ambitious program yet. I will look forward to posting details from events, sharing what I hear from Russian publishers and booksellers. I am as excited for what I will learn on this trip as I am for the plans that will start to form for BEA 2012.

Unbroken is breaking new numbers

I borrowed the info below from today's PW Daily.  It caught my attention because I loved this book - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - one of my favorite reads this year.  It is staggering to think that this book can sell 1,000,000 copies in hard cover PLUS 650,000 e-book copies.  This is proof that digital is bringing in new readers, getting people to buy books they might not have otherwise purchased a title which is not at the expense of print.  I am sure there are people that downloaded the e-book instead buying the hardcover, but I am guessing they might have told a few friends how much they loved this book - influencing them to go out and buy the hardcover (or e-book).  A great story is a great story, no matter what format it comes in. 

In comments about its strong six-month results Wednesday, Random House chairman Markus Dohle cited the number of bestsellers it had in the period as a key reason for the jump in earnings. One of its strongest performances was by Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, and today the  Random House Publishing Group announced that the title has passed the one-million-copy milestone in hardcover copies sold.  T

he story of Louis Zamperini, a World War II bombadier who crashed in the Pacific, was marooned on a raft for 47 days and survived being tortured in a Japanese POW camp, was published by the Random House imprint in November 2010, and has also sold about 650,000 e-book copies. Random Group publisher and president Gina Centrello noted, "In this time of explosive growth in e-book sales, the mega-success of Unbroken in hardcover clearly underscores that the demand for print editions of great reads is still enormous."

Information on the Memorial tribute to Zev Birger

Please see the details below on the memorial tribute that is being heldfor Zev Birger, former Fair Director of the Jerusalem International Book Fair.  He passed in a tragic accident earlier this year.  I did not know Zev very well, only meeting him a handful of times.  However, in those brief encounters, he left a big impression.  He had a true zeal for life and a generous spirit - he will be sorely missed.

The American Advisory Committee of the Jerusalem International Book Fair will hold a memorial tribute to our beloved Zev Birger on Thursday, September 22, at 6 p.m. at the Random House Building, 1745 Broadway (between W. 55-W. 56 Sts.), 2nd Floor, New York, with a reception following hosted by Random House, Inc.

As Chairman and Managing Director of the biennial book fair for more than 25

years, Zev influenced many thousands of book people from all over the world,

including nearly 450 editors and agents awarded JIBF Fellowships in the

landmark program launched under his leadership in 1985.

RSVP by Wednesday, September 14th to philip@jibffellowship.com (for RH Lobby

Security List)

NOTE: A special program in Zev's name will be established to launch at the
next book fair in 2013. Donations to its creation and endowment would be
appreciated and may be made to the Ariel Municipal Company Ltd, Bank Leumi,
Agudat Sport Hapoel Yerushlayim 1, Jerusalem, Branch no. 901, Account no.
6433300/99.

Please visit our website if you'd like to leave remembrances or comments on

Zev's Tributes page, or for further information: www.jibffellowship.com.

THE AMERICAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF THE JERUSALEM INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR:  

Julie Barer, Julie Barer Literary; Tim Bartlett, Basic Books; Flip Brophy,

Sterling Lord Literistic; Cevin Bryerman, Publishers Weekly; Judy Clain,

Little Brown; Jane Friedman, Open Road Media; Lynn Goldberg,

Goldberg-McDuffie; Julie Grau, Spiegel & Grau; Ivan Held, G.P. Putnam's

Sons; Michael Kazan, Verso Advertising; Scott Manning, Scott Manning &

Assoc.; Esther Margolis, Newmarket Press; Daisy Maryles; Maya Mavjee, Crown

Publishing; Amber Qureshi, Viking Penguin; Philip Rappaport, McClelland &

Stewart; Ira Silverberg, Sterling Lord Literistic.