Wednesday, November 25, 2009

FlashForward #2 bestseller in Spain


The Spanish edition of FlashForward, my novel that is the basis for the ABC TV series, is the #2 bestseller store-wide at Casa del Libro, Spain's leading online bookseller:

1. El Simbolo Perdido
by Dan Brown

2. FlashForward
by Robert J. Sawyer

3. El Viaje Intimo de la Locura
by Roberto Iniesta

4. Como Detectar Mentiras: Una Guia Para Utilizar en el Trabajo
by Paul Ekman

5. La Noche de los Tiempos
by Antonio Muñoz Molina

This is the store-wide list, including all titles (fiction, nonfiction) in all formats. Woot! The bestsellers list is here (scroll down to "Los más vendidos").

My Spanish publisher is the wonderful La Factoria de Ideas.

More about the Spanish edition (including the opening chapters in Spanish) is here.
Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

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6 Comments:

At November 25, 2009 8:01 PM , Blogger Jeff Tranter said...

I can understand they want to capitalize on the popularity of the television series (and it is being shown in Spain) but won't that be a little confusing? I imagine a reader trying to figure out where the L.A. FBI agent shows up in the novel.

 
At November 25, 2009 8:17 PM , Blogger David said...

Is that the Spanish cover? If so, it would leave me scratching my head when I got into the story.

Of course, your Spanish speaking audience is probably enjoying the show like the rest of us, so maybe they will understand.


-- david j.

 
At November 25, 2009 9:32 PM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

A book with a cover that depicts something not in the book? My goodness, THAT'S never happened before! ;)

 
At November 25, 2009 10:03 PM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

See the US cover of Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes. Note the three men in the raft, all of whom are wearing American flags on their shoulders and one of whom is African-American. There's no raft in the novel, no Americans, and no black person.

See the US cover of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which depicts all sorts of things from Blade Runner that aren't in the book.

See the US cover of Ender's Game, which depicts a scene totally made up, having nothing to do with the novel.

 
At November 26, 2009 11:29 AM , Blogger Unknown said...

Wow! It's a much better cover than TOR picked for your book. Why is the North American English cover so bland in comparison? I expect they do want to sell books at TOR, so I hope they take heed of the Spanish publisher’s lead and fix their cover for any further, future print runs.

 
At November 26, 2009 12:03 PM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

It's all a question of what the individual local broadcasters of FLASHFORWARD are willing to license to the publisher. ABC in the US only let Tor have the series logo and the ABC circle logo; Five in the UK wouldn't let Gollancz have anything; the Spanish broadcaster, on the other hand, recognized the win-win of having what amount to posters advertising the TV series in every bookshop in the land, and gave La Factoria de Ideas that art.

These licensing issues are tricky: none of the broadcasters make any money off of sales of the book, and none of the publishers make any money off the TV show (I'm the only one who makes money off both), and so it takes win-win non-zero-sum thinking to get any cooperation at all.

That said, the new Tor edition is selling very well, and has already gone into a second printing, and to ABC's credit they allowed Penguin Canada to use the official FlashForward logo to promote my novel WAKE in Subway ads here in Canada.

 

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