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12th October 2008

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Profile returns to Q&A for Polar Bears

28.07.08 Catherine Neilan

Profile Books is to return to the Q&A format for its fourth New Scientist tie-in title, with last year's How to Fossilize Your Hamster--a guide to experiments--failing to match the success of the previous two titles.

The press will publish Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? on 9th October. The book will be edited by Mick O'Hare, who compiled the previous three works. It will follow the same format as the two earlier books - Does Anything Eat Wasps? and Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? - in gathering together some of the best questions and answers featured in the popular science magazine's Last Word section.

Collectively, the three existing books have sold more than 1.45 million copies worldwide. Penguins, the second in the range, was the most commercially successful, selling 815,000 copies worldwide, while Wasps sold more than 515,000. Hamsters was the least successful of the trio, although more than 250,000 copies were bought.

O'Hare said the team had always planned to launch a third Q&A book, but needed time to build up good quality material. He said: "We have a very big archive, but this time I was aware we only had two years to cover – previously we'd had a decade to pull from. But hopefully we've done that and people will enjoy it." O'Hare added that the third book was "the most fun to do".

Profile has world rights (excluding North America) to the new book, which has a planned first print run of 120,000. It will be printed as a paperback carrying an r.r.p of £7.99, and will be marketed through the New Scientist magazine and a Christmas direct campaign. In the US, the book will be published by Holt, while in Canada it will brought out by Penguin.

Book Profile Home Catherine Neilan New Scientist Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? Does Anything Eat Wasps? Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?