Headline grabber to be bestseller

Eddie Cassidy,

Publishing house Penguin said website orders from Amazon, alone, mean the book will hit the number one selling position in Britain and Ireland on its launch date, August 26.

Penguin PR director Joanna Prior said the serialisation of the controversial book, Keane, has prompted a massive reaction from the industry.

“We have pre-orders of 100,000 but we expect that to be doubled before the launch date,” Ms Prior said.

“The UK book trade has substantially increased orders since the controversy which followed the first weekend’s serialisation in the News of the World and The Times.”

Timed to coincide with the new English soccer season, Ms Prior said comments by the Manchester United skipper in the book grabbed the headlines this week in every daily newspaper and radio station in Britain and Ireland.

“We expect the book to stay in the news bulletins for another few weeks before the launch.

“The serialisation continues this weekend and there’s still plenty of meat on the bone,” she said.

“It’s a hardback that will certainly deliver.”

The paperback version of the book will not be available until early next year but Ms Prior said the publishers expect the book to remain a bestseller throughout the Christmas sales period.

“It’s certainly the football autobiography of the year,” said Ms Prior. She believed it would match Alex Ferguson’s book, Fergie: My Life, as the biggest-ever bestseller of a sports person’s autobiography.

“It’s not only the support of the Manchester United faithful which in itself constitutes a huge audience and readership worldwide, but the Keane book will appeal to the general public who are definitely interested in his story,” she said.

The hardback version is available through Penguin subsidiary Michael Joseph.

Keane will be published on August 26 at euro 25