In defense of the SA publishing perspective, any selling-out of a book in one day (given a print run of thousands) qualifies as breaking news, so I can see the reason for the headline.
In defense of Joost... well, that's something else now...
I know they had just over 1000 copies at booksite on Monday and now they are on negative 700 + - so its not selling in huge quantities. It did sell out its first print run. So Amanda at Struik should be able to give what the first print run was. I think its got to grow more as its not the next jake white title yet
It's a miracle. I didn't even know Joost could write, let alone in English.
Independent Newspapers' columnist Kevin McCallum pointed out, quite rightly, that releasing the book on the weekend of the Currie Cup final was bad form. I agree.
All this said and er, done, this is a real struggle between heart and mind: for a book to sell so well is great for the industry and I'm happy for them. That it's a glorified juice and gossip makes me sad.
Perhaps all the poets out there can get a celebrity to make an encrypted sleezy confession hidden among the pages of good writing.... or is that taking marketing too far?
No no, Sven, that story will never sell. Much too intriguing, just not banal enough. You need to be a plebrity (TM: others wishing to use this word must send champagne), and to have done something both tawdry and boringly predictable: lied to everyone including your wife, committed adultery (preferably with a stripper), been too stupid to check for hidden cameras, lied some more, been stupid some more, until having the bright idea of making $$$ of out lying, cheating and being stupid.
The consolation is that the very nice, very hard-working folk at Zebra will get plaudits if this continues to sell. Which they deserve -- can't be fun working with clothes-pegs on their noses.
*yes, I'm back, but not officially until Monday. Must abandon computer and go and unpack.*
Yep, one hopes that it's sales figures like these that make it possible for the Zebra peeps to cross-subsidise the more literary stuff. Let's hope they feel encouraged to put out more anthologies like Touch and Home Away (forthcoming) in future.
November 3rd, 2009 @16:00 #
Scary - not breaking - news!
November 3rd, 2009 @16:00 #
Although it does break something - my heart...
November 3rd, 2009 @16:14 #
In defense of the SA publishing perspective, any selling-out of a book in one day (given a print run of thousands) qualifies as breaking news, so I can see the reason for the headline.
In defense of Joost... well, that's something else now...
November 3rd, 2009 @16:19 #
Well, if you see it that way - I am happy for Zebra Press and the hard-working people on their team.
November 3rd, 2009 @16:29 #
I want to know how many copies he would have sold if he had denied that the stripper story was true!
November 3rd, 2009 @17:24 #
Quite funny quote at the "share your thoughts" Facebook link above:
"The chickens have come home to Joost."
November 4th, 2009 @18:07 #
I know they had just over 1000 copies at booksite on Monday and now they are on negative 700 + - so its not selling in huge quantities. It did sell out its first print run. So Amanda at Struik should be able to give what the first print run was. I think its got to grow more as its not the next jake white title yet
November 4th, 2009 @18:28 #
The Times reported 7000 copies earlier today - for the English edition.
November 5th, 2009 @16:24 #
It's a miracle. I didn't even know Joost could write, let alone in English.
Independent Newspapers' columnist Kevin McCallum pointed out, quite rightly, that releasing the book on the weekend of the Currie Cup final was bad form. I agree.
All this said and er, done, this is a real struggle between heart and mind: for a book to sell so well is great for the industry and I'm happy for them. That it's a glorified juice and gossip makes me sad.
Perhaps all the poets out there can get a celebrity to make an encrypted sleezy confession hidden among the pages of good writing.... or is that taking marketing too far?
November 5th, 2009 @16:49 #
This is precisely why I will *never* let the story of the pelican, the Angolan snake charmer and the barbie doll come to light....
November 6th, 2009 @12:36 #
No no, Sven, that story will never sell. Much too intriguing, just not banal enough. You need to be a plebrity (TM: others wishing to use this word must send champagne), and to have done something both tawdry and boringly predictable: lied to everyone including your wife, committed adultery (preferably with a stripper), been too stupid to check for hidden cameras, lied some more, been stupid some more, until having the bright idea of making $$$ of out lying, cheating and being stupid.
The consolation is that the very nice, very hard-working folk at Zebra will get plaudits if this continues to sell. Which they deserve -- can't be fun working with clothes-pegs on their noses.
*yes, I'm back, but not officially until Monday. Must abandon computer and go and unpack.*
November 6th, 2009 @16:05 #
Yep, one hopes that it's sales figures like these that make it possible for the Zebra peeps to cross-subsidise the more literary stuff. Let's hope they feel encouraged to put out more anthologies like Touch and Home Away (forthcoming) in future.