HBG Big News This Week: February 26-March 2, 2018

Following is a recap of major news at Hachette Book Group for the week of February 26-March 2, 2018:

Bestsellers: HBG has 11 titles on the New York Times Bestseller list dated March 11, including one #1—All American-Murder by James Patterson and Alex Abramovich with Mike Harvkey (Little, Brown) at the #1 position on the Sports and Fitness (Monthly) list. HBG’s distribution clients have four titles on the list this week. HBG has 12 titles on the USA Today bestseller list, see the full list here.

Michael Pietsch on BBC: Michael Pietsch spoke with the BBC/World Service program Witness about David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. It’s a fascinating interview—listen to it here.

PEN/Nabokov Award: Irish novelist Edna O’Brien (Little, Brown) received the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature for work that allows readers to “look clearly and dispassionately upon the spectrum of human emotion” (PEN.org)

2018 IACP Cookbook Awards: Grand Central Life & Style won two 2018 IACP Cookbook Awards: Scraps, Wilt + Weeds: Turning Wasted Food into Plenty by Mads Refslund & Tama Matsuoka Wong, and Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life by Emily Kaiser Thelin.

NYTBR Cover: Gregg Easterbrook’s It’s Better Than It Looks (PublicAffairs) shares the cover review of the March 4 New York Times Book Review with Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now (see attached). Easterbrook received a rave review in the Wall Street Journal (“masterly and comprehensive”) and was interviewed on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered last Sunday; Wall Street Journal and Washington Times reviews are on the way, along with more.

Media blitz: Brad Meltzer’s The Escape Artist (GCP) is launching next week with a huge publicity campaign—a big reveal in a Washington Post essay (cover of Style section), appearances on CBS This Morning, NBC’sLate Night with Seth Meyers, Fox Radio’s Kilmeade & Friends, Good Day New York, The Glenn Beck Program, reviews in the New York Times Book Review and Associated Press, interviews in the Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, and Parade, a national satellite radio tour (20 programs, in addition to 50 other radio interviews in the next two weeks), a Parade.com excerpt, and a 12-stop national tour.

Hachette Audio partnership: Hachette Audio announced a partnership with Wax Audio Group, to produce vinyl + digital audio titles. The series will launch with David Foster Wallace’s This is Water, and forthcoming titles include Hamilton: The Revolution, and work from Jerry Garcia, Nelson Mandela, Amanda Palmer, Steve Jones, Wayne Kramer, and David Sedaris.  For more details, read the press release.

Amazon Picks: Amazon editors’ picks for March include HBG titles in manty categories, including Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe (GCP) in the Editor’s Top 10 Picks. See the full list here: Best Books of the Month for March 2018.