Next week is a huge week in publishing:

MONDAY: Ted Kennedy’s Memoir True Compass. Print run: 1.5 million copies.

TUESDAY: Or Monday at midnight, if you prefer, Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol. First run is 5 million copies. Also, Jon Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory: the Odyssey of Pat Tillman.

FRIDAY: Oprah will choose her 63rd pick. Clues: Little, Brown title priced at $14.95 in paperback. ISBN 978-0-316-08637-0. Hardcover: $23.99, ISBN 978-0-316-08636-3. Oprah says that she has “never made a selection like this.”

First Things First: The Lost Symbol Contest Began Today

First up is Symbol Quest, the game.

Basically, you get a question and drag the appropriate symbol into the center. If patrons are driving you crazy for help with the 33 questions (a reference to the 33 degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry), then you can cheat and look here for answers. He forgot one clue, but it’s a pretty easy one anyway.

Publisher’s Marketplace thinks they’ve come up with a list of candidates for the Oprah pick, saying that Little, Brown prices very few of its hardcover titles at $23.99, which narrows the list of potential candidates to the following books published between January 2008 and August 2009:

Amigoland by Oscar Casares (August 10)

Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (July 27)

This Wicked World by Richard Lange (June 30)

Do Over! by Robin Hemley (May 11)

The Man’s Book: The Essential Guide for the Modern Man by Thomas Fink (May 6)

Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn (March 25)

Eat, Drink and Be From Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid (January 6)

The Book of Calamities: Five Questions About Suffering and Its Meaning by Peter Trachtenberg (August 27, 2008)

The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton (August 11, 2008)

Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger (July 3, 2008)

Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan (June 9, 2008, with trade pb published at $14.99 on July 15, 2009).”

On the other hand, GalleyCat thinks it might be Beginner’s Greek or Say You’re One of Them, which, being a book of short stories, would be different for Oprah.

Baker & Taylor has it listed as literary fiction, which would exclude several of the above titles if they’re right.

I thought maybe we could get a clue from the audio format, but none of the nominated titles have an audio version except Beginner’s Greek, which has an abridged version. The audio version won’t be out until October 13 anyway (ISBN 9781607883418). Barnes and Noble lists it unabridged at 3 discs and a length of 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Any votes?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.