The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Trade prepares for 'Super Thursday'

25.09.08 Benedicte Page

Publishers and retailers are bracing themselves for a clash of the Titans on Thursday 2nd October, which is being dubbed "Big Bang Day" and "Super Thursday" because of the number of high-profile books being launched simultaneously.

Next Thursday sees nearly 800 titles come to the market—three times the daily average—among them a hefty number of titles tipped by retailers as Christmas bestsellers, including books from Dawn French, Jeremy Clarkson and Michael Parkinson, and a cluster of titles by big-name chefs including Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Gary Rhodes and Rick Stein.

David Cooke at Tesco said: "There  is a big lump of titles coming out across the last two weeks of September and on 2nd and 16th October. The 2nd October is the biggest of the dates and it's a monster day, with most of the titles booksellers are tipping for Christmas published then." He added: "A huge slug of hardbacks all arriving in one go does strain us slightly—we'll breathe a sigh of relief when it's over, as then all the big Christmas titles will be in."

Michael Jones, books category manager at Borders, said: "We're calling it ‘Super Thursday' because all the big heavyweight titles are coming out, and it's quite amazing having them all together. It's good to get all our big books out there in the store and there's a nice mix of biographies, fiction and kids' books."

Sally Hughes of the Books for Cooks bookshop in Notting Hill, west London, said: "The titles are all arriving at once, and this year they're all huge too—so you're talking about weeks needed in the gym to do all the unpacking and stacking, and trying to fit them into our tiny shop. But it's really exciting."

Hodder publicist Kerry Hodd said the publisher was coping with the demands of a packed autumn schedule: "We are now so used to approaching the autumn on 16 cylinders that we start in August hammering away at these things. It's always a hairball of celebrity titles, good solid fiction and autobiographies, and you just do what you can."

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