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Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Books to Watch

Books to Watch? Rather it would seem that this statement is a paradox to an outsider of the book biz. To a layman, it would seem that Books to Read would be a more appropriate tag line. A better, less sophisticated, statement would actually be Books to Buy, damnit!

It seems that the new (really old) buzz word is buzz. BookExpo America (BEA) is one of the premier global showcases where buzz counts for a great deal in bookselling. And it's great to see that yet another Newfoundland writer is getting some well-placed attention: Kenneth J. Harvey specifically. We've known about him for years here in Canada and he gets a nod yesterday in the NY Times via Publishers Weekly. However, it's important to note that his novel mentioned in the article actually came out in 2003 in Canada, hence my confusion as to why this novel is marked as a 'debut'. One to watch, yes, but debut? The attention that the Times brings is better late than never I suppose:
But booksellers were also looking for the sleepers, the next Lovely Bones. Publishers Weekly, the industry's trade journal, started some pre-show rumors about possible sleepers with an article on "Best Books of B.E.A.," including "Debuts to Watch." Among the picks: The Town that Forgot How to Breathe by Kenneth J. Harvey (St. Martin's) and Jungle Law by Victoria Vinton (MacAdam/Cage).

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had this happen this week too on a similar "RSS" type feedy site with the same design... is it spam? is it useful? hmmm.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 5:30:00 PM  
Blogger John MacDonald said...

Lana,
I assume you meant to post this under the blog about the cancer site using my photo? There does not seem to be a "person" behind the scenes and it looks totally RSS fed as indicated. I am stymied as to why they chose my pic of Terry Fox of the multitude out there...

-John

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 5:55:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

John:
Thanks for mentioning my
novel, THE TOWN THAT FORGOT
HOW TO BREATHE.

I appreciate it.

By the way, they're calling
it a 'debut' in the US
because it's my first book
published down there.

Cheers,
Kenneth
kennethjharvey at yahoo.com

Thursday, June 16, 2005 2:50:00 PM  
Blogger John MacDonald said...

And thank you, Mr. Harvey, for clearing up that 'debut' designation. All the best in selling millions and millions (or just enough to be comfortable)...

Thursday, June 16, 2005 3:03:00 PM  

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