books

Mondadori Group: book activities under a single business area

Antonio Porro new Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., a company chaired by Ernesto Mauri

In order to address the challenges of the book market in a more effective and innovative manner – a market deemed both crucial and strategic for its development – today the Mondadori Group has adopted a new organizational structure hinged on a single business area covering the whole range of book activities, from the trade area to school textbooks, from illustrated books and international publications to art and exhibitions.

Forecasts on the book business show that overall revenue in 2017 will top the 500 million euro mark, with profitability in excess of 14%.

The new structure, which has already been adopted by the main players also on the international level, is implemented two years after the heavy investments made in the acquisition of Rcs Libri and represents the starting point of a new phase: the Mondadori Group aims in fact not only to strengthen its leadership in its segments of operation, but also to seize every opportunity for growth on the domestic and foreign markets.

This strategic goal is based on the remarkable results achieved by Books over the past few years, thanks to the people who serve the Group with their outstanding professional qualities, dedication and love for books.

Head of the new area is Antonio Porro, who has also been appointed Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., a company chaired by Ernesto Mauri, CEO of the Group.

Enrico Selva Coddè, current Managing Director of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., for the Trade area, in his areas of responsibility, now adds the Electa activities for the Books area, the General Manager of which is Stefano Peccatori, who has also been appointed manager of the Sperling&Kupfer and Piemme publishers.

Enrico Selva Coddè remains at the helm of Mondadori, Einaudi, Rizzoli and the Children’s Business Unit, in the traditional policy of competitiveness and clear-cut identity and total independence of each publishing brand.

Still reporting to Antonio Porro: Aaron Buttarelli, General Manager Mondadori Education, Publishing area; Danilo Galimberti, General Manager Mondadori Education, Sales area; Giovanni Bonfanti, General Manager Rizzoli Education; Rosanna Cappelli, General Manager Art, Exhibitions, Electa Museums; Marco Ausenda, Managing Director Rizzoli International Publication.

Gian Arturo Ferrari will continue to offer his publishing advice to the new Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., Antonio Porro.

“Fire and Fury. Inside the Trump White House”: soon in Italy for Rizzoli

On February 13, Rizzoli publishes “Fire and Fury”, the publishing phenomenon of this beginning of the year.

The book, which was released in the USA on January 5 and initially sold in 150,000 copies, has already reached 1.1 million paper copies sold out – with readers queuing up at night in front of bookshops as in Harry Potter’s day – as well as hundreds of thousands of copies in ebooks and the audio version.

In England, in just a few days and even before its arrival in the bookshop on January 10, the print run reached 400,000 copies and there are already more than 20 countries that have acquired publishing rights. In France the volume, as announced today by Le Figaro, will be released on February 22nd for Laffont.

Lies? It’s all true,”says Wolff, who initially imagined the book as an account of the first 100 days at the White House to be published one year after the beginning of Trump’s presidency and then, unexpectedly, had access to the President and most senior members of his staff, including Steve Bannon, for a total of 18 months (the first interview took place in May 2016), becoming a” constant intruder “.

Michael Wolff, 64, an American author, essayist, and journalist, and a regular columnist and contributor to USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, and the UK edition of GQ, has already stirred up a sensation with a biography on Rupert Murdoch (2007, The Man Who Owns the News).

Fuoco e furia, Michael Wolff

Darker: Fifty Shades of Black as told by Christian

After Grey‘s success, E L James returns to the bookshop with Darker, the events of Fifty Shades told from Christian Grey’s point of view. A deeper and darker version of the love story that has fascinated millions of readers worldwide, published in Italy by Mondadori.

Plot

Their scorching, sensual affair ended in heartbreak and recrimination, but Christian Grey cannot get Anastasia Steele out of his mind, or his blood. Determined to win her back, he tries to suppress his darkest desires and his need for complete control, and to love Ana on her own terms.

But the horrors of his childhood still haunt him, and Ana’s scheming boss, Jack Hyde, clearly wants her for himself.  Can Christian’s confidant and therapist, Dr. Flynn, help him face down his demons? Or will the possessiveness of Elena, his seducer, and the deranged devotion of Leila, his former submissive, drag Christian down into the past?

And if Christian does win Ana back, can a man so dark and damaged ever hope to keep her?

Darker, E L James

Rizzoli hires Eccles Fisher Associates

Rizzoli Hires Eccles Fisher Associates

With effect from August 1st, Rizzoli, BUR and Fabbri Editori in Italy have appointed Eccles Fisher Associates as their UK scout

Founded in 1983, Eccles Fisher Associates Ltd is a literary scouting agency working on behalf of publishers from eighteen countries and a film and T.V. company

www.ecclesfisher.com

Paolo Cognetti wins the 2017 Premio Strega 2017 with “Le otto montagne”

On Thursday 6 July, in the captivating space of the Ninfeo of the Villa Giulia in Rome, Paolo Cognetti won the 71st Premio Strega with his nove Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains). The author, who also won the 4th edition of the Premio Strega Giovani 2017, an award for young writers, clearly moved and delighted by this prestigious recognition, dedicated the prize to the mountains, “because it’s an area that has been abandoned, forgotten and destroyed, often by the city, and I decided that I wanted to write about that. I have tried to be a sort of spokesman, a go-between, for the mountains, the plain and the city, that all seem very far away. I also try to write these stories for people who don’t know the mountains and live too far away from them, trying, in some way, to save the world I live in.”  “Being here,” he added, “is like a dream come true, not so much a dream of winning a prize, as being a writer and being able to live on my work.”

From the beginning, Le otto montagne has been a literary phenomenon, something that was made clear by the competition among the publishers who wanted to publish it around the world. In fact, the novel has already been translated into more than 30 languages.

Le otto montagne tells the story of Pietro, a solitary and somewhat argumentative city boy, and his relationship with his parents, his friend Bruno and, above all, with the mountains. From the stage of the Strega prize the author reminded the audience that nature is a word used by people who live in cities.”

In their lean, hard and wild beauty, the mountains leave a permanent mark on the soul, an imprint on those who are born there and those who love them. It becomes a category of the spirit, and even when one leaves, in search of a more comfortable and easier place, you can never really break away. All it takes is a sound, a smell, and you are sucked straight back in. This is what happens to the characters in the novel. They just can’t manage without, the come and go, but never really leave.

It is a story of “fathers and sons, of abandoning civilisations, of the freedom of living wild. I have always kept with me the memory of the great happiness I experienced as a boy in the woods. Whatever destiny is, it lives in the mountains we have above our heads.” (Paolo Cognetti).

In 2017 Piemme will publish the new novel by Paula Hawkins

Piemme has announced the publication of Into the Water, the highly anticipated novel by Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train, an extraordinary worldwide phenomenon and one of the biggest international best-sellers ever.

Into the Water is a story of psychological suspense concerning the many faces of truth and a family that risks drowning in its secrets.

Don’t trust a surface that is too calm: you never know what it conceals. With the same narrative force that has captured millions of readers around the world with The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins gives us a multifaceted novel that is rich in emotions. When the river of a small town gives up the bodies, within a few weeks of each other, of a single mother and her teenage daughter, what also comes to the surface is a much more complicated and surprising affair than expected. As in The Girl on the Train, INTO THE WATER  comes from a deep and powerful understanding of human instincts and the damage they can cause.

INTO THE WATER offers surprises on every page,” said the American editor Sarah McGrath. “As in The Girl on the Train, also here the murders are part of a bigger story. INTO THE WATER shows us what the tricks of memory can do and the ways in which the past creeps dangerously into the present and the future.”

“Once again Paula explores the fascinating depths of our mind,” says the British editor Sarah Adams, “reminding us that things are rarely as they seem, and prompting us to investigate the reality around us.”

“An original and courageous book,” said Paula Hawkins’ agent, Lizzy Kremer.

The novel will be published in the United States and in Great Britain on 2 May 2017.

Paula Hawkins is the author of the worldwide bestseller The Girl on the Train, which has sold over 18 million copies around the world. The novel spent 79 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list, and more than three months in the number one spot. In Italy it has sold over 600,000 copies, and has never left the bestsellers list since it was published in June 2015, and remains in the top ten best-selling books. The Girl on the Train was recently adapted for the cinema starring Emily Blunt.

Bruce Springsteen doubles down for his fans

Published and released simultaneously around the world the autobiography “Born to Run” and the album “Chapter and Verse”, with 5 unheard tracks

To celebrate this double bonanza, 5 events around Italy and a Mondadori Store competition to win a guitar signed by Bruce Springsteen

Mondadori Libri is proud to announce the publication – simultaneously around the world – of the autobiography by Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, on 27 September 2016. It will be preceded by the album Chapter and Verse, released by Columbia Records/Sony Music, on 23 September.

Mondadori Store is celebrating this double bonanza with an unmissable competition, organised in collaboration with Sony Music Italy and Mondadori Libri, with as the prize Fender Telecaster American Standard guitar, tested and signed by Bruce Springsteen. For full details please go to eventi.mondadoristore.it.

Finally, to celebrate along with all Bruce Springsteen fans the arrival of the autobiography, Born to Run, and the album, Chapter and Verse, 5 events are planned in Milan, Rome, Bologna, Padua e Turin, with exceptional guest appearances, shows and lots of music. For full details please go to librimondadori.it.

The autobiography Born to Run

 

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl: the experience was so exciting that Bruce decided to put it down on paper. This was how the extraordinary autobiography started, a book that Bruce has spent the past seven years preparing and in which we rediscover the sincerity, the irony and originality that we have come to know through his songs.

He tells us about his childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, a place full of poetry but also of potential risks, destined to feed his imagination, until the moment that Bruce calls the “Big Bang”: Elvis Presley’s debut on the “Ed Sullivan Show”. He describes his unbridled desire to become a musician, his beginnings as the king of the bar bands in Asbury Park and the birth of the E Street Band. With disarming candour, for the first time Bruce Springsteen talks about the inner torments that inspired his greatest songs, beginning from Born to Run, a track that turns out to be even more complex than we imagined.

It is an enlightening read for anyone who loves Bruce Springsteen, but it is much more that the memoir of a legendary rock star: it is a book for practical spirits and incurable dreamers, for parents and children, couples in love and lonely hearts, for artists, hippies and anyone who wants to be baptized in the sacred river of rock. It is rare that an artist tells their story in such an intensely detailed way. As in many of his songs (Thunder Road, Badlands, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the USA, The Rising and The Ghost of Tom Joad, to name just a few), the autobiography of Bruce Springsteen outlines the inspiration of a unique artist and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his own experience.

 

 

The album Chapter and Verse

Chapter and Verse, is the album that accompanies the autobiography, released on 23 September by Columbia Records/Sony Music four-days ahead of the publication of Born to Run. The collection, which spans the artist’s entire career, includes six songs that have never been heard before. It is available on CD, double LP, digital download and streaming. The CD and double LP contain the lyrics of the songs and some rare photos.

The songs on in Chapter and Verse, 18 in total, reflect the themes and sections of the book Born to Run. The collection begins with two tracks by the Castiles, with the teenaged Springsteen on vocals and guitar, and closes with the title track from 2012’s “Wrecking Ball”. The track list of the album traces Bruce’s musical history, from its beginnings and tell a story that runs in parallel with the narrative of the book.

The recordings by the Steel Mill and the Bruce Springsteen Band feature musicians who would later enter the ranks of the E Street Band. The solo demos “Henry Boy” and “Growin’ Up” were made in 1972, shortly before Springsteen began recording his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

 

The Mondadori Store competition

Mondadori Store, Italy’s most extensive chain of bookstores, in collaboration with Mondadori Libri and Sony Music Italy, has organised a competition for which the prize is a Fender Telecaster American Standard tested and signed by Bruce Springsteen himself. Fans can take part in the competition by pre-ordering or buying the book along with the CD or LP) exclusively at participating Mondadori Stores or on the web site mondadoristore.it,

All you have to do then is to got to the web site eventi.mondadoristore.it before 20 October 2016 and follow the instructions to participate in the draw. The prize will be presented to the fortunate winner along with a certificate of authenticity.

The guitar, on display from today at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo, will also travel to the Mondadori Stores in Bologna, Padua and Turin as part of three events dedicated to Bruce Springsteen, and finally it will remain on show at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan until the end of the competition.

For full details please go to eventi.mondadoristore.it.

 

The events

A total of 5 events have been organised to celebrate the publication of the autobiography Born to Run and the release of the album Chapter and Verse, starting with Eataly and two exceptional events. The first, in Milan, on Thursday 29 September at Eataly Smeraldo from 8 pm and the second in Rome, on Sunday 2 October at Eataly Ostiense from 6 pm. Two unique occasions, with special guests. At the heart of th event will be a reading from the autobiography Born to Run by the great Giuseppe Battiston. Taking part in Milan will be the journalist Marina Petrillo and I Rome Gino Castaldo.

But that’s not all, because from 3 to 6 October the Fender Telecaster American Standard signed by Bruce Springsteen will tour the Mondadori Stores in Bologna, Padua and Turin, where it will be on display for a whole day. In each city a special event dedicated to the autobiography Born to Run and the album Chapter and Verse, has been organised and the protagonists of these three events will be the comic actor Antonio Ornano, authors, artists and special fans. For full details. please go to librimondadori.it.

“Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande”: the first social book by Pope Francis

An international book-event to be published soon

During the meeting between Pope Francis and Scholas Occurrentes, held today in the Synod Hall in Rome, a new Mondadori publishing project was presented developed in collaboration with Scholas Occurrentes and the start up eFanswer: Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande, a book that will be published later in the year, both in Italy and abroad.

Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande is not just a book but an international “social event”, in which Pope Francis invites young people from around the world to ask him questions on the site www.askpopefrancis.scholasoccurrentes.org, developed together with the start-up eFanswer and available in five languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. You can ask anything, there are no predefined arguments or issues, the important thing is that what you want to know comes from the heart. The questions will be collected and selected by Mondadori and Scholas Occurrentes on the basis of two main criteria: variety and originality, in order to allow Pope Francis to share his thoughts on topics never so far addressed. The Holy Father’s answers will be published in a book to be released in the coming months and for which the rights will be sold worldwide. Edited by Tiziana Lupi, a journalist, who wrote Our Pope, an illustrated biography of Pope Francis published by Mondadori in 2014, and edited My Idea of ​​Art, a book published last year, also by Mondadori, in which, for the first time, Pope Francis expressed his thoughts on art.

Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande is an authentic social book, which uses new forms of communication to put the Holy Father in contact with people from every corner of the planet. A sort of collective book interview, a new concept, a great virtual dialogue between Pope Francis and young people from around the world, of any social class and religion who, thanks to the internet, can ask their questions just as if they had him in front of them.

During the meeting Pope Francis underlined how important it is to learn to enter into a dialogue, because in a dialogue everybody wins and nobody loses; because dialogue means building bridges. Tiziana Lupi, who presented the project, focused on just this concept to describe it: “With this book, together with Scholas Occurrentes and Mondadori, we have tried to open a door to this dialogue. Unfiltered, so that young people can ask their questions directly on the web platform. The aim is to be open to listening and dialogue, two key tools, as Pope Francis himself claims, for the creation of a different world.” The first two questions were asked by two of the 12 YouTubers present at the meeting. The answers, which the Holy Father gave immediately, will be the first to be included in the book.

This project has been developed in collaboration with Scholas Occurrentes, an international organisation of pontifical law created by Pope Francis and concerned with young people and education with the aim of promoting social integration and a culture of encounters for peace, and thanks to a technological and publishing platform developed by the start-up eFanswer.

Birth today of Rizzoli Libri S.p.A

RCS Libri changes name¹ following completion of the acquisition

Mondadori announces that the new name of RCS Libri S.p.A. is Rizzoli Libri S.p.A.. Today, the company entered the consolidation scope of the Group chaired by Marina Berlusconi and led by Ernesto Mauri, after the closing was completed today.

The members of the new Board of Directors of the company, active on the Italian trade and educational books market, and on the illustrated books market also on an international level, are: Gian Arturo Ferrari (Chairman), Paolo Mieli, Antonio Porro, Oddone Pozzi and Enrico Selva Coddè.

Specifically, Enrico Selva Coddè, Managing Director of the Trade area of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., will head the Trade area of Rizzoli Libri S.p.A., while Antonio Porro, Managing Director of the Educational area of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., will head the Educational books and International Illustrated books area of the company.

¹ Change subject to filing with the relevant company registry

Writers Alessandra Appiano, Michela Murgia, Grazia Verasani are the protagonists of the new Digital School online training course

Creative writing lessons begin today on romantic fiction, life stories and thrillers

 

Digital School, the training initiative promoted by Donna Moderna, CasaFacile and Sale&Pepe, has launched three new e-learning courses for aspiring writers: Creative Writing romantic fiction, life stories and the thriller online from today on Digitalschool.it.

The new courses are aimed at those who want to write, share emotions and tell stories. Under the guidance of publishing professionals including editors and authors, it will be possible to acquire the tools of creative writing, to practise and refine your skills while learning to apply narrative methods and explore in more detail specific narrative genres, in line with individual interests, for example, in romantic fiction, life stories and the thriller.

Each of the three options on offer is organised in two modules: the first, run by Edoardo Brugnatelli, an editor at Mondadori, will outline the notions underlying creative writing; while the second will illustrate the narrative techniques of the chosen genre, with advice and observations from the writers Alessandra Appiano, for romantic fictions, Michela Murgia, for life stories and Grazia Verasani, for the thriller.

All participants will have the possibility of seeing their stories published Donnamoderna.com. Plus, every month, Edoardo Brugnatelli will select three pieces of work for personalised editing and publication on the site.

The teaching materials for the course includes 3 hours of online video lessons with practical exercises, supporting documentation and 2 test games to ascertain the skills acquired and a final certificate of attendance.

Enrolment for the entire programme (first and second modules) ives participants the option to buy the other two modules by the writers.

For more information about enrolment and costs, please go to: Digitalschool.it.

The official hashtag is: #progettodigitalschool.