HBG Big News This Week: February 17-21, 2020

Following is a recap of major news at Hachette Book Group for the week of February 17-21, 2020:

Bestseller news: Making their debuts on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction bestsellers list this week: Unsolved by James Patterson & David Ellis (#6; GCP) and Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand (#7, Back Bay). Overall, HBG has 22 titles on the NYT list this week, and our client publishers have four books on the list.
Welcome, Nat Geo!: This week, HBG announced a new distribution relationship with National Geographic. HBG will sell and distribute Nat Geo adult and children’s trade books in the US, Canada, and many international territories, beginning October 1. We have already begun transitioning Nat Geo from their previous arrangement with PRH, and the Nat Geo team will join us in New York at next week’s sales conference. Read the press release here.
LA Times Book Prizes: The Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists have been announced, including three books from Little, Brown: Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill (in the Current Interest category), Michael Connelly’s The Night Fire (Mystery/Thriller category), and Attica Locke’s Heaven, My Home(Mystery/Thriller category). And special congratulations to LB author Walter Mosley, who was named the winner of the 2019 Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement! Winners will be announced at the LA Times Book Festival on April 17.
Nebula Award nomination: Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, has been named a finalist for the 2019 Nebula Award for Best Novel! The Nebula Awards recognize the best works of science fiction & fantasy published the previous year. The 2019 awards will be presented at the 2020 Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) Nebula Conference in Woodland Hills, CA on May 30.
Acquisition news: This week, Rolling Stone  (14m+ UVM) ran an exclusive announcement of a forthcoming memoir by music legend Peter Frampton to be titled Do You Feel Like I Do?. The book, co-written with Rolling Stone editor Alan Light, details the high and low points of Frampton’s incredible career, including his struggles with the inflammatory disease that prompted him to announce his retirement from performing after his farewell tour this year. The book goes on sale October 20.
In the news: GCP author and former Obama communications advisor Dan Pfeiffer has been all over the media promoting his new book, Un-Trumping America: A Plan to Make America a Democracy Again (Twelve, OSD February 18). TV appearances this week include MSNBC’s Morning JoeAndrea Mitchell ReportsThe Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, and Live with Katy Tur; CNN’s CNN Tonight with Don LemonNew Day, and At This Hour with Kate Bolduan; NBC’s Meet the Press Daily; and PBS’s Amanpour & Co., along with an appearance on this Sunday’s (February 23) Meet the Press Weekend. Radio and podcast appearances have included the San Francisco Chronicle Politics Podcast, KQED’s Political Breakdown, and WNYC’s Brian Lehrer. Print and online appearances have included VOXWired, an excerpt in The Daily Beast, and an op-ed in Politico.
Adaptation newsThe Hollywood Reporter announced an upcoming film adaptation of Tom Holt’s The Portable Door (Orbit), starring Christoph Waltz and Guy Pearce. The Jim Henson Company is producing, along with Australian production company Storybridge Films. The story was also picked up by io9, which billed the film as an “‘Office Meets Harry Potter’ fantasy comedy.”