There is a nice profile of Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello in today’s Wall Street Journal (link requires subscription). The article includes this graphic. Here’s a test: see if you can spot the title that’s only been out for two months. Pretty heady stuff.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob · Random House
It’s been a while since I posted one of these updates about Defending Jacob, so here we go.
The biggest news: Warner Brothers has optioned Defending Jacob for a movie. No actors or directors are attached to the project yet. It will likely be a year or so before we have a screenplay, which will make or break the project since it is the screenplay, not the novel, that will attract actors and directors. Now, what I know about the movie business would fit on the head of a pin, so I won’t predict how this will turn out or even whether the movie will be made at all. But every indication is that the producers are intent on making this happen. Stay tuned.
Last week, Defending Jacob was published in the UK. My English publisher, Orion, has orchestrated a phenomenal publicity effort. Luckily, I will be in London in April to see it (and to drop by the London Book Fair, briefly). The first reviews from England have arrived as well, all quite favorable. In The Times, Marcel Berlins wrote that Defending Jacob is “worthy of being mentioned in the same breath [as Presumed Innocent], which is a high compliment.” It certainly is.
Another exciting aspect of this whole adventure has been foreign sales. Defending Jacob has sold in nineteen foreign countries, an absurd number. Now, the trouble with selling so many foreign-language editions is that sooner or later you run out of places to keep selling. Which is why it was so remarkable when we sold the book in Macedonia last week. Because, well, it’s Macedonia. The advance will barely cover a dinner out with my family, and the print run probably will be around 500 copies. Still, I would bet that more American novels are optioned for film than are translated into Macedonian, so let’s pause to savor this milestone, too.
Finally, yesterday morning was a remarkable one here in Boston, where I scored a publicity twofer. First, my hometown newspaper, the Globe, ran an interview with me — and put my mug at the top of page one. This is the very definition of a slow news day, one would think, but there it was. And second, I appeared on the popular morning drive-time show “Matty in the Morning.” The show’s host, Matt Siegel, is a Boston institution and a genuine, enthusiastic fan of Defending Jacob. (You can listen to the interview here.) So Bostonians on their way to work yesterday could hardly escape me.
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Categories: My Books Tags: Boston Globe · Defending Jacob
Today is the UK publishing day for Defending Jacob. Safe journey, little book!
Categories: My Books Tags: book covers · Defending Jacob
With our UK publishing date fast approaching, Orion will soon have this outrageously cool series of posters displayed alongside the escalators at select London Tube stations. Jacob is coming, Londoners — and he doesn’t look happy. (Defending Jacob will be published in the UK on March 15. Click image to view it larger.)
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob · publicity
Today is Sunday. Let’s review the week’s surreal Defending Jacob news.
In Monday’s Times, Janet Maslin reviewed the book, which left her “wondering whether this book’s author, William Landay, a former district attorney with two well-received novels behind him, has developed the chops to catapult himself into the Scott Turow tier of legal-eagle blockbuster writers.”
Wednesday the Times released its latest bestseller list (to appear in the print edition on February 26). Defending Jacob actually climbed one spot, to number 3. Reuters and Publishers Weekly have the book at number 2.
Friday the Daily Mail published the first review in the UK. The opening paragraph (I am not making this up):
Not since Scott Turow has a crime thriller — any thriller, though this too happens to be a literary legal thriller — shaken me by the throat like this. It’s a stunning, shocking, emotionally harrowing ride in which the reader is plunged into a riveting but terrible murder trial and the equally heartbreaking implosion of a loving family. I had to lie down when I finished it (all too soon) to still my beating heart.
Now that’s a positive review!
Honestly, it’s hard to process all this. In the daily grind of writing, it’s a struggle just to churn out a few pages every day. How the work will be received is something I don’t think about. Like any other writer, I am painfully aware of the limits of my talent and the flaws in my work. This business is humbling enough without worrying about what the critics will say. So I am bemused — grateful, of course, but bemused — at the wonderful reception Defending Jacob has gotten these last couple of weeks. Here’s hoping for another week like last week.
Oh, and one other thing: this week saw a breakthrough in the fine art of book promotion, the Defending Jacob cookie. James Patterson, take note.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
It has been an incredible first week for Defending Jacob. Last Tuesday, the day the book was published, it hit #1 on the Barnes & Noble bestseller list and stayed there for most of the week. The ebook also spent most of the week at #4 or #5 on the B&N list. Amazon named it a Best Book of the Month and Editors’ Pick for Kindle, and sales promptly spiked there as well. Reviews ranged from flattering to really flattering to “Holy crap!” And all the while I’ve been on tour, visiting eight cities so far (I’m in Seattle as I write this, Portland tomorrow).
Today the week reached a surreal climax: I was told Defending Jacob will debut at #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. (That asterisk means the sales figures for Defending Jacob are barely distinguishable from the title above it.) (Update: To clarify, the book will appear on the print edition of the Times list on February 19. That list is available online here.)
I suppose things could get better, conceivably. But it’s hard to imagine.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
It’s finally here: Defending Jacob is published today. You know what to do…
(If you’re in the UK, you’ll have to wait just a few weeks more. Orion has pushed back the publication date a bit. Stay tuned.)
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
The Barnes & Noble web site is certainly looking lovely today. Defending Jacob is currently at #48 on the B&N bestseller list and rising fast — it was around #350 at lunchtime. Not bad for a book that hasn’t even been published yet! I want to cherish little moments like this because, hey, you never know. Maybe this is as good as it gets.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
With just a couple of weeks left until Defending Jacob is published, last week brought two bombshells.
First, Barnes & Noble announced that Defending Jacob will be February’s pick for the Barnes & Noble Recommends program. This is a game-changer. For four or five weeks from its publication date, the book will have a prime placement at the front of every B&N store, accompanied by endorsements from booksellers. It will be heavily promoted online, as well. Already, Defending Jacob is prominently featured in the B&N Bookseller’s Guide to Good Reading and the list of Best Books of the Month. And — my favorite part — the dust jacket of all B&N stock will feature the lovely gold badge you see above. I am incredibly honored. The list of past selections for B&N Recommends is a roll call of books that were “that book.” Maybe, just maybe, Defending Jacob will be “that book” for a while, too.
Also last week, the American Booksellers Association announced that Defending Jacob made the Indie Next list for February. Another huge honor and one that is sure to bring the book to many, many people’s attention. I am always exhorting people to support their local indie bookstore if they’re lucky enough to have one. What a wonderful thing to have the indies supporting me!
It crosses every writer’s mind at some point: what would it be like to be picked for the Indie Next list? Or B&N Recommends? Happily, I’m about to find out.
Other news:
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
Random House has produced this 15-second ad for Defending Jacob. Fun.
Categories: My Books Tags: book trailers · Defending Jacob · video
I hate to turn this blog into an endless infomercial for Defending Jacob. I can’t imagine anything more tedious to read. But here I go again: another starred review, this one from Booklist magazine. (No link available yet. The review is in the print edition only, for now.) Booklist is an important tastemaker. As the trade journal of the American Library Association, librarians rely on it to help make buying decisions. And there are lots of librarians.
Money quote:
Landay’s two previous novels (Mission Flats, 2003, and The Strangler, 2007) were award winners, but he reaches a new level of excellence with this riveting, knock-your-socks-off legal thriller. With its masterfully crafted characterizations and dialogue, emotional depth, and frightening implications, the novel rivals the best of Scott Turow and John Grisham. Don’t miss it.
Whoa.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
Today I got the schedule for my author tour in support of Defending Jacob. It’s a doozy, ten appearances in ten days in nine cities. In order, they are: Boston, Kansas City, Houston, Denver, Scottsdale, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland. Then a final stop at my childhood bookstore, the wonderful Brookline Booksmith, which still looks pretty much the way it did when I was a kid. It was called the Paperback Booksmith then. It had a funkier vibe than it does now, but the bones of the place haven’t changed. Same creaky floors, same basic layout. I used to love wandering around there. Still do. It is a fitting place to end the tour.
For someone who has never toured at all, this feels like a jump to the big leagues. I am flattered, to be honest. These are lean times in publishing (and not just in publishing). Extravagant author tours are unheard of. It is a measure of Random House’s high hopes for this book that they are willing to foot the bill for all this. And stay tuned, there is much more to come.
The full schedule is here. If you live in any of these places, come on out and say hello. I promise to be spellbinding company, even if I’m a little delirious with jet lag.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
So many exciting things are happening behind the scenes with Defending Jacob, but most of the news is still top secret. My editor has regularly sworn me to silence, and because it is too late for me to get a real job, I will do as I’m told and keep my mouth shut. But here is some news I can share.
One nice feature of Amazon’s book pages is the occasional “guest review” by an author. For Defending Jacob, two star suspense writers have chimed in with very generous reviews. Philip Margolin, who has yet to write a novel that does not make the Times bestseller list, wrote:
The books I blurb range from fun reads to very good reads. Then there is the rare book that knocks my socks off. William Landay’s Defending Jacob is one of these gems. It is a legal thriller, but so are To Kill a Mockingbird, Snow Falling on Cedars and Anatomy of a Murder. Defending Jacob, like these classics, separates itself from the pack because it is also a searing work of literary fiction.
Joseph Finder, whose espionage and suspense novels also sell in outlandish numbers, might actually be more enthusiastic.
Scott Turow invented the modern legal thriller, I’d argue, with his astonishing 1987 novel Presumed Innocent. … Turow’s had many imitators since then, but nothing has come close to the power, the narrative skill and the legal cleverness of Presumed Innocent.
Until now.
It is a little surreal to read such extravagant praise for my own book, especially praise from fellow writers, which carries more weight. And of course I am thrilled that Defending Jacob will have such a kick-ass Amazon page. But what impresses me most about the whole thing is how incredibly gracious these two authors have been.
Mind you, this is not logrolling. I am in no position to repay the favor, since a blurb from a no-name like me is of zero value. Nor do I have a relationship with either writer. I have never met Margolin, and Finder I’ve met only a handful of times, very briefly. None of us share a common publisher, editor, agent, dentist, car mechanic, or anything else. So neither of these guys has anything to gain. Apparently they are endorsing the book for no other reason than that they believe in it and want to help an obscure mid-list author find a wider audience. It’s so generous, so — there’s no other word for it — nice … well, I can hardly begin to explain it.
So I will just say “thank you” to both, publicly. And if you find yourself in a bookstore with a novel by Finder or Margolin in front of you, remember that these are two of the good guys.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
More good news today about Defending Jacob: a starred review in Publishers Weekly.
Andy Barber, a respected First Assistant DA who lives in Newton, Mass., with his gentle wife, Laurie, and their 14-year-old son, Jacob, must face the unthinkable in Dagger Award-winner Landay’s harrowing third suspense novel. When Ben Rifkin, Jacob’s classmate, is found stabbed to death in the woods, Internet accusations and incontrovertible evidence point to big, handsome Jacob. Andy’s prosecutorial gut insists a child molester is the real killer, but as Jacob’s trial proceeds and Andy’s marriage crumbles under the forced revelation of old secrets, horror builds on horror toward a breathtakingly brutal outcome. Landay (The Strangler), a former DA, mixes gritty court reporting with Andy’s painful confrontation with himself, forcing readers willy-nilly to realize the end is never the end when, as Landay claims, the line between truth and justice has become so indistinct as to appear imaginary. This searing narrative proves the ancient Greek tragedians were right: the worst punishment is not death but living with what you — knowingly or unknowingly — have done.
I do not get especially high or low about reviews, honestly. I am my own harshest critic, and by a very wide margin. By the time I read a review, I have already lashed myself for every flaw in my book. This is probably not the healthiest way to go through a writing career, but it does have the happy effect of insulating me from critics. Good reviews feel unconvincing, bad reviews feel … well, not bad enough. With all that said, I’ve never understood those artists who simply ignore reviews. I can’t resist reading them.
In any event, I am far from home today — in beautiful Seattle, doing more publicity for the book — so this was very nice news to wake up to.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
We have our cover for the British edition of Defending Jacob from Orion Books. I was hesitant about this design at first, honestly, but now I really love it. It’s a completely different look from the U.S. cover, which probably tells you something about the differing sensibilities of American and English readers — though what it tells you, exactly, I have no idea. One thing is clear, even to my American eyes: that is one creepy-looking kid. My thanks to everyone at Orion for such an arresting design.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
FYI a Q&A about Defending Jacob — questions posed by Random House publicists, rambling, prolix answers by me — has been added to this site, though it’s pretty well buried. An edited version of this interview was included in the press kit for the book. This is the whole unedited enchilada. You can find it here.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
Elizabeth Stone (1803-1881)
Categories: Odds & Ends Tags: children · Defending Jacob · parents · quotes
While I was away on vacation last week, I received this jaw-dropping blurb from the perennial bestselling author Joseph Finder:
A novel like this comes along maybe once a decade. William Landay’s Defending Jacob is a tour de force, a full-blooded legal thriller about a murder trial and the way it shatters a family. With its relentless suspense, mesmerizing prose, and a shocking twist at the end, it’s every bit as good as Scott Turow’s great Presumed Innocent. But also something more: an indelible domestic drama that calls to mind Ordinary People and We Need to Talk About Kevin. A spellbinding and unforgettable literary crime novel.
Thank you, Joe. But next time could you try to be a little more enthusiastic?
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
And we have a cover at last. To see it in glorious high resolution, look here.
Categories: My Books Tags: Defending Jacob
