This story is on the front page of The New York Times today.
Right - A scene from “Downton Abbey,” which is shown on PBS.
By JULIE BOSMAN - Published: January 12, 2012-
The melodrama “Downton Abbey” is already the darling of American public television. Now it has become a marketing tool for booksellers and publishers hoping to tap into the passion of the show’s audience.
So they are rushing to print books that take readers back to Edwardian and wartime England: stories about the grandeur of British estates (“Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle” by the Countess of Carnarvon); the recollections of a lady’s maid (“Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor” by Rosina Harrison); and World War I (“A Bitter Truth” by Charles Todd), the bloody backdrop to the show’s second season, which had its premiere in the United States last Sunday on PBS, drawing 4.2 million viewers.
“We’re just riding that ‘Downton Abbey’ wave,” said Stephen Morrison, the editor in chief and associate publisher of Penguin Books, who watched Season 1 last year and began planning which books to release around the time of the Season 2 premiere. “I think the story lends itself to great television but it is also the themes of great literary writing, with all the twists and turns in the characters.”
Book publicists have swarmed Twitter, where “Downton Abbey” has been endlessly discussed and analyzed, to drop suggestions and link to alluring titles in both their e-book and print editions, borrowing hashtags like #downtonabbey and #downtonpbs that are already in heavy circulation.
“Love Downton Abbey?” the Knopf Twitter account asked on Tuesday. “May we suggest Wade Davis’s INTO THE SILENCE — a book capturing the twilight of this elite #downtonpbs.”
Rebecca Lang, a publicist for Penguin, wrote on Twitter on Monday, “Are all ladies’ maids as manipulative as O’Brien? Find out by reading ROSE, written by a true lady’s maid.”
Bookstores, in the middle of a typical January lag in sales, have tried to seize the moment. Barnes & Noble is running a promotion featuring books that connect to “Downton Abbey,” including “Love in a Cold Climate” by Nancy Mitford, a novel about the quirks of the British upper class.
Last Friday, Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., hosted a preview of the first episode of Season 2, which was attended by more than 50 people. The store also set up a prominent display of a dozen “Downton”-related titles.
More at The New York Times
“We’re just riding that ‘Downton Abbey’ wave,” said Stephen Morrison, the editor in chief and associate publisher of Penguin Books, who watched Season 1 last year and began planning which books to release around the time of the Season 2 premiere. “I think the story lends itself to great television but it is also the themes of great literary writing, with all the twists and turns in the characters.”
Book publicists have swarmed Twitter, where “Downton Abbey” has been endlessly discussed and analyzed, to drop suggestions and link to alluring titles in both their e-book and print editions, borrowing hashtags like #downtonabbey and #downtonpbs that are already in heavy circulation.
“Love Downton Abbey?” the Knopf Twitter account asked on Tuesday. “May we suggest Wade Davis’s INTO THE SILENCE — a book capturing the twilight of this elite #downtonpbs.”
Rebecca Lang, a publicist for Penguin, wrote on Twitter on Monday, “Are all ladies’ maids as manipulative as O’Brien? Find out by reading ROSE, written by a true lady’s maid.”
Bookstores, in the middle of a typical January lag in sales, have tried to seize the moment. Barnes & Noble is running a promotion featuring books that connect to “Downton Abbey,” including “Love in a Cold Climate” by Nancy Mitford, a novel about the quirks of the British upper class.
Last Friday, Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., hosted a preview of the first episode of Season 2, which was attended by more than 50 people. The store also set up a prominent display of a dozen “Downton”-related titles.
More at The New York Times
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