(Via Publishers Lunch)
Amazon Bought Two Locks to Keep LOST SYMBOL Secure
The New York Times won’t be obtaining any copies of Dan Brown’s new book from Amazon, where the e-tailer’s home page carries a note promoting the new release from Jeff Bezos–who insists that “even inside Random House, only a half dozen employees have been allowed to read The Lost Symbol in its entirety.” (Is it supposed to be reassuring that almost no one at the publisher worked with the author on preparing his book for publication?)
Amazon has “agreed to keep our stockpile under 24-hour guard in its own chain-link enclosure, with two locks requiring two separate people for entry.” All they know about the book is that “it takes place over the course of twelve hours” and features Robert Langdon. Of course if you want to pre-order it for delivery to your Kindle the morning of release, go right ahead. The print version is No. 1 at the site; the Kindle pre-order is currently No. 64 on the Kindle list.
Of the many coffee-spitting phrases I loved from this article the best, in my humble opinion, is the editorial commentary: “Is it supposed to be reassuring that almost no one at the publisher worked with the author on preparing his book for publication?” No, no it is not. I must admit- the attitude in the industry on this one is, of course they aren’t printing advanced copies or showing it to anyone before publication: it’s Dan Brown, it’s the follow up to The Da Vinci Code and even if it is as horrible as most people I’ve spoken to are predicting, it will still sell 200,000 copies minimum in its first month.
Happy Labor Day all- especially to the 6 people at Random House who have had to hold their tongues for the last 10 months. It’s almost over.
And in the name of full disclosure: I will of course be reading it at some point- Dan Brown is the perfect airplane read- and this will be out just in time for my 8 hr trip to Frankfurt next month.