News Audiobook service signs up four publishers AUDIOBOOKS


BARDOWL INKS CONTENT DEALS Tom Tivnan


Bardowl, the “Spotify for audiobooks” UK-based start-up, has signed a string of content deals with publishers as it readies its service for a general trade titles launch later this year. Penguin, Faber, Canongate and


Macmillan will supply “a comprehensive range of fiction and non-fiction” audio titles across both adult and children’s books. This follows deals Bardowl signed for business audiobooks with Penguin, Macmillan, AudioGo, Summersdale, Wiley and Creative Content when it launched its business version of the app in June this year.


HOUSE SPEAKER BERCOW TO PEN TENNIS BOOKS


Biteback has acquired two books by speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, with the politician bringing order to the world of tennis. Publisher Iain Dale bought world


rights direct from Bercow in Tennis Maestros: Te Twenty Greatest Male Tennis Players of All Time, to be published in September 2013, and Te Twenty Greatest Female Tennis Players of All Time, to be released in 2014. Bercow, who was once ranked as Britain’s number one junior tennis player, assesses the merits of tennis stars from the present day as well as players from earlier eras.


W&N SET TO SERVE ROUX TITLE


Weidenfeld & Nicolson and the Orion Publishing Group have acquired the first book in three years from chef and “MasterChef: Te Professionals” star Michel Roux Jr. Orion non-fiction publishing director Amanda Harris acquired world rights from Andrew Nurnberg at Andrew Nurnberg Associates in Te French Kitchen. Te book will feature provincial


French recipes, with dishes from regions including Burgundy, Provence, the Loire and the Pyrenees. Harris said it will “appeal to Michel’s millions of fans and to the serious home cook”. Te title will be published in hardback in October 2013.


SIDEBOTTOM ROMAN TRILOGY GOES TO HARPER Joshua Farrington


HarperFiction has signed a three- book deal with historical novelist Harry Sidebottom for a series of novels charting the bloodshed of Imperial Rome. Te Oxford academic, who only


began writing fiction three years ago, will write three books in a series called Trone of the Caesars, with the first title, Iron and Rust, planned for publication in spring 2014.


4 THE BOOKSELLER DAILY AT FRANKFURT | 12 OCTOBER 2012 Sidebottom Sidebottom, fellow and director of


studies in Ancient History at St Benets Hall, Oxford, and lecturer in Ancient History at Lincoln College, has previously written five books in the Warrior of Rome series, published by Michael Joseph. Kate Espiner, publishing director at


HarperFiction, bought UK and Commonwealth rights for the books from James Gill at United Agents. Te series will be set around the “Year of the Six Emperors” in 238, the epicentre of chaos and tumult in the third century.


Espiner said: “We could not be


more excited to be welcoming Harry to HarperCollins. He is an extraordinary writer who, whether in the closed-doors, small-room power- play of imperial politics, or on the grand-scale narrative of epic set-piece battle, underpins his thrilling storytelling with incredible authenticity and historical insight. His Trone of the Caesars promises readers fiction [which lies] where Patrick O’Brian meets A Song of Ice and Fire.”


Roux Book right and Chapman Chris Book, Bardowl co-founder,


said: “We see this as a major breakthrough; there’s now real momentum behind the breadth of content in the Bardowl offering. We are hugely grateful to [the publishers] for their vision and support. Others are following and we expect to make further announcements after the Frankfurt Book Fair.” Based in Bath, Bardowl was launched


this year by mobile entrepreneurs Book and Neil Chapman, who met while working at Orange. Former Virgin Publishing m.d. Rob Shreeve is a shareholder and publishing director. The service provides users with unlimited access to stream audiobooks at a cost of £9.99 a month.


Credit: James Hawkins


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