Literary fiction
COMMERCIAL FICTION / ROMANCE
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- THE LITTLE FLOWER SHOP BY THE SEA
- A PARCEL FOR ANNA BROWNE
- THE VINTAGE GUIDE TO LOVE AND ROMANCE
- CRIME THRILLERS Detective/Police procedural: THE DROWNING GROUND
- Historical Crime: THE INVENTION OF FIRE
- Psychological Suspense: BROKEN PROMISE (first in the Promise Falls trilogy)
- Thrillers: CITY OF THE LOST
- THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE
- NON-FICTION BUSINESS/BIG IDEAS ALL YOU CAN PAY: How Companies Use Our Data to Empty Our Wallets
- THE AGE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY: How Bitcoin and Cybermoney Are Overturning the World Economic Order
COMMERCIAL FICTION / ROMANCEAPPLEBY FARM by Cathy Bramley AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): UK – Transworld 
RIGHTS SOLD: German – Heyne PUBL. DATE: February 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: Freya Moorcroft has wild red hair, mischievous green eyes, a warm smile and a heart of gold. She’s happy working at the café round the corner from Ivy Lane allotments and her romance with her new boyfriend is going well, she thinks, but a part of her still misses the beautiful rolling hills of her Cumbrian childhood home: Appleby Farm. Then a phone call out of the blue changes everything… Freya’s beloved Uncle Arthur and Auntie Sue need her help. For the first time in years, Freya is back on the farm feeding the chickens, mucking out the stables, and loving every moment. As her visit comes to an end, she has a difficult decision to make: stay, or go? Freya has to follow her heart, but just where does her heart lie?
AGENT: Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): UK – Avon RIGHTS SOLD: (Turkish) PUBL. DATE: January 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: When the pounds start falling off Katie, founder and president of London’s most popular social club for the calorie-challenged, it seems like a dream come true. But as the stigma of being overweight recedes and her life starts to change, she faces losing more than the inches around her waist. Everything that’s important to her – her closest friends, potential boyfriend, and acceptance into the club itself – are at stake in a world where thin is the new fat. Michele Gorman is the author of five novels, including Single in the City and most recently Bella Summer Takes a Chance. She was born and raised in America but now lives in London. SALES OF PREVIOUS TITLES: Russian - Azbooka-Atticus DREAM A LITTLE DREAM by Giovanna Fletcher AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): UK – Michael Joseph PUBL. DATE: June 2015 MATERIAL: ms due May 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: Four years ago Sarah met Aaron and they’ve been inseparable ever since. But recently Sarah’s had some strange dreams about a friend-of-a-friend from University – Daniel. At first Sarah simply brushes them off, but the more frequent they become the harder they are to forget. Surely she can’t be developing a crush on a man from her dreams while sleeping next to the love of her life? When real-life Daniel makes a sudden appearance in Sarah’s life, he isn’t half as nice as dream Daniel. But this doesn’t stop her dreams, and soon Sarah’s mind is quibbling over three men. PREVIOUS SALES: German - Luebbe, Italian - Fabbri, Portuguese/Brazil - Phorte, Portuguese/Portugal - Presenca, Turkish - Eksik Parca THE LITTLE FLOWER SHOP BY THE SEA by Ali McNamara 
AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): UK – Sphere PUBL. DATE: July 2015 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: Poppy Carmichael, 30, certainly never intended to own a florist. But when she inherits her grandmother’s beloved flower shop on the beautiful Cornish coast, Poppy has no choice but to return to the pretty harbour town of St Felix where she spent much of her childhood. Returning to St Felix brings back sad memories for Poppy. But when she makes new friends such as local flower grower Jake, a young widowed father of two teenagers, Poppy begins to overcome her fears, and discover for herself what’s so special about this little flower shop by the sea. PREVIOUS SALES: Czech - Jota, German - Goldmann, French - Bragelonne, Hungarian - Ulpius-haz, Italian - Newton Compton, Portuguese/Brazil - Novo Conceito, Russian - AST THE MISSING PIECE by Victoria Walters AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): UK – Headline PUBL. DATE: March 2016 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: THE MISSING PIECE is about Rose Walker, who was always famous in her small seaside town of Talting for being a talented artist, but at twenty-five she becomes known for something entirely different – she becomes known for being a widow. A year ago her new husband Lucas was killed in an accident and Rose is struggling to move on from the loss, not only of her long term partner and all she’s ever known, but also the loss of a future she thought she had ahead of her. She’s left bereft, unable to paint and hiding her creative block from the quirky residents of her hometown. Robert Green arrives in Talting for the summer and takes an immediate interest in Rose, buying up all of her old paintings. He tries to inspire her to start painting again and, encouraged by her best friend Emma and her husband John, Rose and Robert start spending more time together. Rose feels attracted to Robert which makes her feel incredibly confused and guilty for betraying Lucas. What Rose doesn’t know is Robert is hiding a secret. Rose discovers one of her paintings in his flat. One of her fiancé Lucas. One that she sold a year ago to someone else. If Robert has it, that means he didn’t come to Talting by chance. When Robert reveals the truth about who he is, it tears them apart. Robert and Rose will have to decide whether to face the past or lose any possibility of a future together. Victoria Walters is a bookseller and a blogger (victoria-writes.com) with a love of social media. THE OLIVE BRANCH by Jo Thomas 
AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): UK – Headline RIGHTS SOLD: German – Luebbe PUBL. DATE: July 2015 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: Can love bloom in the groves of Italy? You can buy almost anything online these days. But is a crumbling Italian farmhouse a step too far? Ruthie Collins certainly thinks so when she arrives amid pouring rain to an olive farm she doesn’t know the first thing about running. But for Ruthie, newly single, anywhere has got to be better than her mum’s settee. Hasn’t it? Life can change with the click of a mouse. But the finer things – friendship, romance, and even the olive harvest – take time to grow. Can Ruthie put the past to rest and find her own piece of the Dolce Vita along the way? SALES OF PREVIOUS TITLES: Portuguese/ Brazil – Novo Conceito
AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): WEL - Pan Macmillan PUBL. DATE: November 2015 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: Anna Browne is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life in the City. She has everything she wants. But someone thinks Anne Browne deserves more… When a parcel arrives, addressed in her name, Anna has no idea who has sent it. Inside she finds a beautiful gift: one that is designed to be seen. And so begins a series of incredible deliveries, each one bringing Anna further out of the shadows and encouraging her to become the woman she was destined to be. As Anna grows in confidence, others begin to notice her: and her life starts to change. PREVIOUS SALES: Bulgarian – ERA, Croatian – Mozaik, German – HarperCollins, Indonesian - PT Gramedia, Italian – Newton Compton, Macedonian – Kultura, Serbian – Vulkan, Turkish – Indigo THAT DAY IN JUNE by Martina Reilly AGENT: Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): Ireland – Hachette 
PUBL. DATE: May 2015 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: Sandy and Max are unlikely friends. Sandy is a runaway, who has left her unhappy past behind and now roams the streets of High Hills. Max is a high-flying PR executive, a man about town, a mover and shaker. The only reason he brings Sandy a daily coffee is because he feels sorry for her, isn't it? And then Max disappears, and when Sandy tracks him down, she discovers that maybe his life isn't that amazing after all... Max has lost everything: friends, career - and all he has left is the truth about the man he really is. Two opposites, Sandy and Max might be made for each other but before they can find happiness, they need first of all to confront the truth about what happened in their lives on that day in June, all those years ago. SALE OF THE THINGS I WANT YOU TO KNOW: Norway – Cappelen Damm
AGENT: Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson PUBLISHER(S): WEL – Pan Macmillan RIGHTS SOLD: German - Goldmann PUBL. DATE: April 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: The first book in a new series. From the author of the best-selling Yours Truly. Jessica Beam is one hot mess. She knows how to have fun (cider, men and the snooze button usually have something to do with it) but lately she's been forgetting how to turn up for work on time. Or in clean clothes. Suddenly finding herself out of a job, out of luck with her friends and thrown out of her flat, she tracks down her only family: her grandmother, in Kensington. She's never met Matilda Beam before but hungover beggars can't be choosers. Things aren't going quite so well for Grandma, either. Her 1950s ‘Good Woman’ guide books are out of print, her mortgage is staggering and her granddaughter apparently wears neon Wonderbras. But when a publisher throws them a lifeline - a new contract if they can prove the ‘Good Woman’ guides still work - Jess and Matilda have to work together if they want a roof over their heads. Changing modern party girl Jess into a refined vintage lady is no mean feat and the true test of their makeover will be capturing the heart of snobby London playboy Leo Frost. It's going to take dedication, a seriously pointy bra and nerves of steel to pull it off . . . Kirsty Greenwood was born in 1982 in Oldham, Greater Manchester. A graduate of North Trafford College and Salford University, she is the founding editor of the popular female fiction and chick lit website www.novelicious.com You can find her at www.kirstygreenwood.com SALES OF PREVIOUS TITLE(S): German – Goldmann, Hungarian – Ulpius-Haz, Italian - TEA
AGENT: The Helen Heller Agency PUBLISHER(S): UK – Michael Joseph, US – St. Martin’s Press RIGHTS SOLD: Czech – Paseka, German - Luebbe PUBL. DATE: June 2015 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: A debut novel set in the Cotswolds, but far from cosy. Pitched as The Killing meets the atmospheric writing of Tana French, it’s a whodunit with many twists. The hero is a policeman who lives something of a double life. He was born and brought up in Argentina and had to escape from there in the early 1980s because he was a candidate to be ‘disappeared’. None of this story, however, takes place in Argentina. It involves murders and a lot of twists and unexpected psychological turns. The hero, Inspector Gulliermo Downes, and his second-in-command, DS Graves, both have a lot of backstory and luggage, not all of which will become obvious in this first book. In 1996, after completing a Masters in history and specialising in the origins of the FBI at the University of Edinburgh, James Marrison moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he now lives and works as a freelance journalist. He got his first break into journalism by writing features for The Buenos Aires Herald, the oldest English language newspaper in Latin America. Besides his other writing work, Marrison used to be a regular contributor to Bizarre magazine in the UK where he specialised in true crime. While working for Bizarre, Marrison interviewed some of the most eminent psychologists, criminologist and CSI investigators operating in their field today and wrote extensively about some of the world’s most notorious killers. He is also the author of The World’s Most Bizarre Murders which has been published in hardback and paperback in the UK and has been translated into Dutch and French. THE GAME CHANGER by Louise Phillips AGENT: The Book Bureau PUBLISHER(S): Ireland - Hachette PUBL. DATE: September 2015 MATERIAL: ms due May 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: With overtones of Jim Jones and the Guyana mass suicide tragedy, in the words of the Game Changer - Killing is partly a need for control, and over time, the more you do it, the more you want to do it. Until one day, killing one person at a time is no longer enough. When criminal psychologist, Dr Kate Pearson, takes a step back from work pressures to spend more time with her son, six-year-old, Charlie, it becomes the catalyst to dig deeper into her past and to unearth the dark and dangerous lies behind her childhood abduction. With the help of fellow therapist and long-time family friend, Dr Malcolm Madden, she pieces together lost segments of memory, but as D.I. O’Connor investigates the suspicious death and apparent suicide of a retired school teacher, with blackmail and financial extortion in the mix, a link is soon made between the victim, and Dr Madden, casting Kate’s trust into doubt. Her concerns are intensified when she becomes the victim of anonymous harassment notes and she fears someone is stalking her. Is the danger coming from an ex-client, a past criminal, or the one person who can give Kate answers, and a truth far deadlier than she can imagine? The Game Changer, a psychopath with narcissistic and grandiose ideas, can be anyone you want them to be. When ordinary people are drawn into an extraordinary cult, under the guise of a ‘20 Steps to Self-Enlightenment’ programme, money, lies and death are all part of a terrifying cocktail, with Kate’s life, both past and future, and an apparent suicide, intertwined with fatal consequences for everyone involved. A game of deception and death, where there can only be one winner. THE LAKE by Sheena Lambert AGENT: The Book Bureau PUBLISHER(S): UK – HarperCollins PUBL. DATE: March 2015 
ABOUT THE BOOK: A gripping murder mystery, with a compelling family drama at its heart. September 1975. A body is discovered in the receding waters of a manmade lake, and for Peggy Casey, 23-year-old landlady of The Angler’s Rest, nothing will ever be the same. Detective Sergeant Frank Ryan is dispatched from Dublin, and his arrival casts an uneasy spotlight on the damaged history of the valley, and on the difficult relationships that bind Peggy and her three older siblings. Over the course of the weekend, Detective Ryan’s investigation will not only uncover the terrible truth behind the dead woman’s fate, but will also expose the Casey family’s deepest secrets. Secrets never meant to be revealed.
AGENT: The Helen Heller Agency PUBLISHER(S): UK – HarperCollins PUBL. DATE: February 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: The richly atmospheric new historical thriller featuring John Gower, poet and trader of secrets. Set in the turbulent 14th Century, this is perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom. London, 1386: young King Richard II faces the double threat of a French invasion and growing unrest amongst his barons – and now there's evil afoot in the City. Sixteen corpses have been discovered in a sewer, their wounds like none ever seen before. One thing is clear: whoever threw the bodies into the sewer knew they would be found – and was powerful enough not to care. Enter John Gower, poet and intellectual whose 'peculiar vocation' is dealing in men's secrets. Against the backdrop of medieval London with its grand palaces and churches, dark alleys and mean backstreets, Gower pursues his dangerous quarry. Seeking insights from his friend Geoffrey Chaucer and using his network of contacts, Gower comes to the shocking belief that the men have been killed by a new and deadly weapon of war. Known as 'the handgonne', it would put untold power into the hands of whoever perfected its design. But who has commissioned this weapon? A man who would stop at nothing to achieve his secret goal. The second historical crime novel from the author of A Burnable Book.
Agent: The Helen Heller Agency PUBLISHER(S): US – NAL, Canada – Random House, UK - Orion RIGHTS SOLD: German - Droemer Knaur PUBL. DATE: September 2015 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: The morning it all started, newspaper reporter David Harwood had plenty to worry about. A single parent with no job, forced to return with his young son to the small town of Promise Falls to live with his parents, the future wasn't looking too rosy. So when his mother asked him to look in on his cousin Marla, who was still not quite right after losing her baby, it was almost a relief to put the disaster his own life had become to one side. The relief wouldn't last long. When he gets to Marla's house he's disturbed to find a smear of blood on the front door. He's even more disturbed to find Marla nursing a baby, a baby she claims was delivered to her 'by an angel.' And when, soon after, a woman's body is discovered across town, stabbed to death, with her own baby missing, it looks as if Marla has done something truly terrible. But while the evidence seems overwhelming, David just can't believe that his cousin is a murderer. In which case, who did kill Rosemary Gaynor? And why did they then take her baby and give it to Marla? With the police convinced they have an open and shut case, it's up to David to find out what really happened, but he soon discovers that the truth could be even more disturbing... SALES OF NO SAFE HOUSE, LINWOOD’S 8TH STAND ALONE THRILLER: Arab – Arab Scientific, Dutch – Meulenhoff, French – Belfond, German – Droemer, Macedonian - Matica
AGENT: Laetitia Rutherford, Watson, Little Agency PUBLISHER(S): UK – Headline RIGHTS SOLD: French – Editions Belfond, German – Luebbe PUBL. DATE: January 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: In the first few pages of HOW I LOST YOU, we meet Susan Webster, just emerged from Oakdale Psychiatric Unit where she was put away for killing her child. As soon as she sets up house alone and under an alias, strange events start to overtake her new life. When a photograph of her son, pronounced dead three years earlier, is posted to her flat, she begins a terrifying journey to uncover the past. Helped by Cassie, her lovable but potentially dangerous friend from Oakdale, and Nick, an investigative journalist familiar with her case, Susan starts to uncover secrets from her marriage she never knew she was helping cover up. Was she really betrayed by those she thought had loved and protected her most of all? Or was she driven by a tragic psychosis to do terrible deeds she would now prefer to forget? Jenny Blackhurst lives in Shropshire with her husband and two-year-old son. She is 29 years old, a systems administrator at Shropshire Fire Station and in her spare time is hard at work on her next novel.
AGENT: Laetitia Rutherford, Watson, Little Agency PUBLISHER(S): UK – Sphere PUBL. DATE: December 2015 MATERIAL: ms due May 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: A single choice can destroy many lives. But whose was the choice? And who was responsible? August Bank holiday weekend, 2004: Sean Jackson’s 50th birthday party. During the four-day extravaganza on the ‘Dorset riviera’, his two-year-old daughter, Coco, goes missing. The case becomes a popular cause celebre and destroys a number of prominent careers, but is never solved. Sean’s second wife, mother of the missing child, becomes a national hate figure and his children – teenagers from his first marriage and Coco’s twin, Ruby – are damaged forever by the loss, and by finding themselves public figures without ever asking for it. But what really happened? Now (2016): Sean dies in delicto flagrante in a hotel room, leaving a much younger fourth wife and toddler daughter behind. Two of his children from his former marriages, long ago estranged, go to Devon for the funeral and find themselves in a house with everyone who was there in 2004. Through the shocks that follow, the sisters discover the thing they least expected: each other. PREVIOUS SALES: Chinese – Crown, Croatian – Mozaik, Czech – Motto, Dutch – De Kern, French – Presses de la Cite, Germany – Heyne, Hungarian – Atheneum, Italian – Elliot, Japanese – Hayakawa, Lithuanian – Jotema, Polish – Albatros, Portuguese/Brazil – Bertrand Brasil, Swedish – Modernista, Thai - WeLearn
AGENT: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency PUBLISHER: UK – Little, Brown STATE OF MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: Casey Duncan is a cop with a secret. Before she got on the force—when she was a police cadet—she killed someone. With full malice aforethought. Some people might think she did the world a favour but Casey doesn’t really see it that way. The killing has haunted her for years. But now it’s fore-front in her mind. Looks like someone close to the deceased has come back to find her and exact retribution. Casey wants to run away. Now. Casey’s friend Diana also has a problem. Her ex-husband always did like to batter her around. He doesn’t really care about restraining orders either. Someday soon Diana will probably end up as yet another name on a list of women murdered via domestic violence. Diana would like to disappear as well. And she’s found out a place where she can go. A small town called Rockton a very long way away up near the Arctic Circle. It’s not a hot place for tourism. It’s completely isolated and very remote. People go there to escape. They’re given different identities. They all work at jobs within the community. It’s perfect for Diana and Casey! Except maybe not. Because people in Rockton are beginning to turn up dead. And it turns out not all the inhabitants of the town are victims. A couple of predators have managed to slip through the net. So it’s good that Casey is an experienced homicide investigator because she can help sort this out. And it’s bad that Casey has that kind of experience. Because it puts a huge target on her back. Something she has travelled thousands of miles to avoid…
AGENT: The Richard Parks Agency PUBLISHER(S): US - Morrow PUBL. DATE: February 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE is a smart, compelling, fiercely compassionate crime story that explores the mysteries of memory and the impact of violence on survivors—and the lengths they will go to find the painful truth of the events that scarred their lives. In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City. Five teenage movie-theatre employees were killed in an armed robbery while one, inexplicably, was spared. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Neither crime was ever solved. Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through survivors’ lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape—and drags him deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left five of his friends dead. Like Wyatt, Julianna struggles with the past—with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared. When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers. As fate brings these damaged souls together, will their shared passion and obsession heal them, or push them closer to the edge? Even if they find the truth, will it help them understand what happened, that long and faraway gone summer? Will it set them free—or ultimately destroy them? Edgar Award-nominee Lou Berney has written feature screenplays for, among others, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Focus Features, ABC, and Fox. He is the author of The Road to Bobby Joe, a collection of stories, and Gunshot, Straight, and his short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker and the Pushcart Prize anthology. He has taught at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and in the MFA program at Saint Mary's College in California. SALES OF PREVIOUS TITLES: Japanese – East Press
AGENT: Aragi, Inc. PUBLISHER(S): US – Soft Skull Press PUBL. DATE: January 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: Elena Kelly is a body broker, someone who strips organ donors for parts to be variously used by the medical profession. Known as “corpse wranglers,” Elena was one of the best in her field but when she cut too many corners and too many ethical (and legal) safeguards, she lost everything – humbled and on a strict, three-year parole – she now works as coroner’s assistant in Danville. Elena is still trying to come to grips with her regret and guilt when she is unexpectedly drawn into the search for her former best friend’s missing body. Knowing what can happen to a body that goes ‘missing,’ how it can be salvaged and used indiscriminately for spare parts, Elena endeavours to seek salvation by finding Lia’s remains and bringing them home, as intact as possible. Her search drags her back to the underworld of the dead and pits her against a new corpse wrangler – one more talented and deadly than she ever was. SECOND LIFE pulls back the curtain on those who exist on the edge of the medical profession, the ones who remove skin, tissue, ligament and bones from the dead, for use by surgeons, medical students, cosmetic surgeons, medical equipment and medical experiment companies – anyone in need of body parts. Paul Griner is the author of the acclaimed novels Collectors and The German Woman and the story collection Follow Me, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. He teaches creative writing at the University of Louisville, and his story collection Hurry Please I Want To Know will be released by Sarabande in May 2015. PUBLICATION OF RECENT TITLES: Portuguese/Brazil – Objetiva
AGENT: Duvall Osteen at Aragi, Inc. PUBLISHER(S): US – Ecco, UK - Faber PUBL. DATE: May 2016 MATERIAL: ms available ABOUT THE BOOK: A contemporary suspense novel with noir embellishments, set in the drug-fueled sex industry of Houston, Texas. Twenty-two year old Charlotte Ford reconnects with Danielle, her best friend from high school, a few days before Danielle is found bludgeoned to death in a motel room. In the wake of the murder, Charlotte’s life slowly unravels, and she descends into the city’s underbelly, where she meets the strippers, pornographers, and drug dealers who surrounded Danielle. Ginsburg’s Houston is one part of a lesser known south, where the urban and rural collide gracelessly. In this shadowy world, culpability and sympathy blur in a way reminiscent of Tom Franklin, while her characters evoke the intelligent, erotic grit of Megan Abbott. Melissa Ginsburg was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of the poetry collection Dear Weather Ghost, published by Four Way Books, and two poetry chapbooks, Arbor and Double Blind. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Sunset City is her first novel. NON-FICTION BUSINESS/BIG IDEAS ALL YOU CAN PAY: How Companies Use Our Data to Empty Our Wallets by Anna Bernaesek and T.N.Mongan AGENT: John Thornton, The Spieler Agency PUBLISHER: US – Nation Books RIGHTS SOLD: Chinese – China Renmin University Press, Taiwanese – Business Weekly PUBL. DATE: June 2015 MATERIAL: manuscript available ABOUT THE BOOK: As millions of consumers carry on unaware, powerful corporations race to collect more and more data about our behaviors, needs, and desires. This massive trove of data represents one of the most valuable assets on the planet. In ALL YOU CAN PAY, Anna Bernasek and D.T. Mongan show how companies use what they know about you to determine how much you are willing to pay for everything you buy. From college tuition to plane tickets to groceries to medicine, companies already set varying prices based on intimate knowledge of individual wants and purchasing power. As the consumer age fades into history, rapidly changing prices and complex offers tailored to each individual are spreading like a fog over the free market. Data giants know everything about us before we enter stores or open websites. We may think that the Internet lets us find the best deals, but the extensive information held by companies means that the price we see tends toward the maximum they determine we can pay. In a momentous shift, the economics of information will turn our economy on its head. Fair bargaining is over. Bernasek and Mongan offer a dire warning. These trends are alarming and, if left unchecked, the destination is clear. But there is still time to protect ourselves, Bernasek and Mongan reveal, by taking action. We can choose a better path and this chilling and illuminating book shows how. “There have been plenty of warnings about corporations profiting from data and compromising privacy, but this straightforward analysis never succumbs to alarmism while letting the facts speak for themselves…. Well informed and useful.” –Kirkus Reviews
AGENT: The Gillian MacKenzie Agency PUBLISHER(S): US - St Martin’s Press, UK – Bodley Head RIGHTS SOLD: Chinese – Posts & Telecommunications, German – Ullstein, Dutch – Business-Contact, Taiwanese – under offer PUBL. DATE: January 2015 ABOUT THE BOOK: Written by two seasoned Wall Street Journal reporters, THE AGE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY is a revelatory, thought-provoking, and important book which charts the rise of Bitcoin but also addresses the larger implications of cybercurrency for the global economy and society at large. Bitcoin’s breakthrough technology means that the world as we know it is on the verge of a seismic shift, one that is every bit as revolutionary as that produced by the introduction of the world wide web. The brilliance of bitcoin’s technology boils down to its removal of ubiquitous middlemen – whether they be banks, governments, credit card companies, or any number of other intermediaries – allowing for peer-to-peer exchange that is cheaper and faster than today’s payment systems. The complex algorithms and incentivized policing of the bitcoin network make for more effective guards against fraud and identity theft than traditional payment forms. Cryptocurrency can be used easily by anyone around the world, opening a way for the 2.5 billion “unbanked” citizens of developing countries to enter the global economy. Having paved the way for cheaper, faster, easier, more democratic, safer alternatives to paper money and credit cards, bitcoin won’t remain the realm of a fringe group of libertarian technophiles. Governments and financial institutions have started to take serious notice, and so too have entrepreneurs. Casey and Vigna show us how the influence of cryptocurrency goes beyond the world of finance. It will deeply impact geopolitics -- after all, one of the nation-state’s greatest tools is control over its currency. With cybercurrency, that tool is blunted. The authors speculate that the U.S. is tiptoeing around the concept of issuing its own cybercurrency. There is the very real prospect that all currencies – fiat or otherwise – become digitalized. As a borderless technology, one that allows people to regain power from the state, cryptocurrency provides promise. But with it comes peril, as this book shows. The genie of digital currency has been let out of the bottle, and THE AGE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY will tell us why this is a big thing indeed. Yüklə 265,19 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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