Last week, some of the publicity, sales and marketing folk from RHCB took a trip to Birmingham to visit the lovely people at Peters Bookselling Service. We went to tell them about some of the exciting new books we have coming out next year. One book we are particularly excited about is the second book in the Donut Diaries series: Revenge is Sweet which is out in January. Well, I think you can all guess what is coming… Yes, we turned up with armfuls of donuts to sweeten the librarians and despite it only being 10.30am, they went down a treat (who says its too early for donuts??) Here is one librarian who begged me not to take her photo but eventually relented just to get rid of me:
I also snuck up on Kevin, our UK Field Sales Director who didn’t seem quite so unhappy to be snapped with a plate of donuts in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other:
All in all I’d say it was a successful day of donut-eating. We did leave a few behind but I have a sneaky suspicion they would have been ‘disposed of’ by the librarians later that afternoon.
We are a generous lot here at RHCB – last week we gave away squillions of free copies of book 1 in the fantastic RANGERS APPRENTICE series by John Flanagan at Harry Potter screenings across the UK. This is part of a nationwide promotion to let the UK know just how brilliant this series is – it’s already a bestselling series in the US and in Australia and we think its time the kids of the UK realised just how great it is! See below for some footage from the give-away at the Odeon in Wimbledon:
Ranger’s Apprentice – the hit children’s fiction series from Australia which has become an international bestseller – coming free to a town near you this weekend!
Harry Potter fans weep no more! This Saturday the 23rd July, we will be bringing a new fantasy to life at cinemas around the country as they screen the final film. Teams from Random House will be donning their finest magical capes to hand out 5000 free copies of book one – The Ruins of Gorlan. Fill the magical void in your heart and start a new adventure…
With rights sold in 26 countries, 900,000 copies sold in the author’s native Australia, the series has the power to become a phenomenal success here in the UK.
Books will be handed out in Odeon Glasgow Quay, Cineworld Sheffield, Odeon Manchester Trafford Centre, Cineworld Nottingham and Odeon Wimbledon. Sampling activity will focus around Harry Potter film screening times, so head on down tomorrow to get your free copy!
This is a very exciting day here at RHCB…we have just announced a UK visit from Christopher Paolini, international bestselling author of the incredible Inheritance cycle, which includes Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr and in November we will be publishing the final thrilling instalment, Inheritance. He will be coming over in September as a pre-publication tour for the last book and we are already beside ourselves with excitement!
The tour, from 27th September to 1st October, will include appearances at the Telegraph Bath Children’s Books Festival (30th September) and Fantasy Con in Brighton (1st October), as well as events and signings with Waterstone’s, Forbidden Planet (28th September) and The Newham Bookshop. I’ll be posting all the details and times of these events very soon and we really hope you can join us.
Buzz is already building massively for the book and now for his trip over here – Paolini says, ‘The burning questions asked by fans around the world will be finally answered in this last instalment…all will be revealed’ We cannot wait!
It’s hard to believe, but August is just around the corner… And for any booklover August is a big month because of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. This year, RHCB has a great line-up of authors attending the festival over several weeks.
Kicking of the line-up on Monday 15 August is Lucy Hawking, making science fun for all children. That same day, the wonderful and talented author / illustrator Chris Wormell will also be doing an event (if you’re not familiar with Chris’s work, pop along to the Illustration Cupboard to see an exhibition of his work).
Over the weekend of Friday 19 – Sunday 21 August, a bevy of RHCB authors will be doing events, including Jenny Downham (whose debut novel Before I Die is currently being filmed), master of the historical novel author Theresa Breslin, fantasy favourite Jonathan Stroud, revolting reference expert Mitch Symons and the ever-talented Keith Gray. We are also very pleased that Enaiatollah Akbari and Fabo Geda, who have written the very moving In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, will be attending the festival all the way from Italy.
The following weekend is equally busy for RHCB. The very humorous duo of Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart will be doing an event, as will the high energy Etherington Brothers. Two female authors, who need no introduction, Malorie Blackman and Jacqueline Wilson, will be doing events over the weekend. Later in the weekend Steve Cole, whose event was attended by Gordon Brown last year, will be performing, as will former children’s Laureate Anne Fine.
What a line-up! To find out more or to buy tickets for any of the events visit the Edinburgh Festival website by clicking here.
The Donut Diaries, the deliciously funny adventures of a kid with a super sweet tooth. During July you can read it for free exclusively on Swapit! Visit www.swapit.co.uk/donutdiaries to find out more and see how you can be in with a chance of winning an iPod Touch!
Where there’s a party there has to be DONUTS! We felt like we should reward the lovely bloggers we work with so we piled plates high with donuts at the blogger brunch last Saturday and then pounced on them with copies of the hilarious DONUT DIARIES while they were mid-munch.
The lovely Jen from Wondrous Reads with Random's Rosi!
After the last dregs of tea had been drunk and the bloggers had left the building we got down to the serious business of THE DONUT COUNT. I have a feeling we force fed them too much though as there was THREE donuts left. So that means…
Last night a few of us from RHCB headed to the West End to attend the launch of Chris Wormell’s exhibition at the Illustration Cupboard. The launch kicked off at 5.30pm and by 7.30pm fans of Chris’ work filled the whole gallery and spilled out on to the street. Chris had many of his finest works from his book on display at the exhibition as well as many of his absolutely stunning lino cut prints.
The exhibition officially went on display yesterday. As the gallery staff were hanging the works in preparation a gentleman wondered into the gallery and bought two of Chris’s works from his award-winning book One Smart Fish. What a way to start an exhibition!
You can watch short film of the exhibition with Chris’ commentary here. The first image discussed in the film is one of the images that were bought by the gentleman before the exhibition was even open. Aren’t you jealous!
It was a lovely evening and I felt very privileged to attend. Chris is an amazing artist and this exhibition is very much deserved. Make sure you get along and see it for yourself!
We’ve been waving our lighters in the air and chuckling along to the latest tune penned by author John Dougherty in honour of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure’s online festival. Let the music speak for itself…
This weekend saw us host our third RHCB Blogger’s Brunch with our lovely friends from the blogosphere! Staff from publicity, editorial and marketing spent their Saturday morning chatting about some of our most exciting YA and early teen titles to the bloggers, getting the early buzz going for lots of 2012 titles as well as Autumn 2011 titles.
We invited along our most influential blogging contacts and gave them some jam-packed goody bags as well as jam-filled cakes – a stalwart of any children’s publicity event of course! These cakes were indeed particularly special as the brunch was sandwiched either side with publicity birthdays… The cake stand in the photo was our present to Clare!
After we presented the titles, we moved out to the cafe area to welcome authors Lindsey Barraclough and Andy Mulligan, whose books Long Lankin and Trash have been hugely popular on the blogs. Everyone queued up to get everything from finished copies to early proofs and bound manuscripts signed – some of which they received at the last blogger’s event in January!
We’ve already had some happy emails from bloggers who attended, including Sarah at Feeling Fictional who said “I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you all for a fantastic event yesterday, I had a brilliant time and am very excited about all the new titles you have coming out soon. Thanks also for all the amazing books we got to bring home – I don’t know which one to start with!” You can also see her brill photos of the event here. Vivienne at Serendipity Reviews says “You all work so well as a team and are all so enthusiastic over the books that you have coming out that you have whipped me up into a book frenzy. I was amazed by the new books you have coming out over the next few months.” Darren at Bookzone for Boys said “with less than two weeks to go until the school summer holidays I have a feeling that RH books will be a huge part of my reading summer for the second year running.” Thanks for all your lovely comments! We had a great time with you all as usual and look forward to all continuing to read your blogs, and seeing you at another event soon!
Welcome to our UK Random House Children's Publisher's blog. You'll find behind-the-scenes talk from us, our authors, illustrators & events... and news on the latest cakes from the publicity department!
