The announcement was made yesterday by Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor in chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in the US and Gail Rebuck, chair and CEO of the Random House Group in the UK.
The book will have a global English language first print run of 6.5 million copies, the largest initial print run in Random House's history.
The Lost Symbol will follow on from The Da Vinci Code, featuring protagonist Professor Robert Langdon. Readers will follow him ‘through a masterful and unexpected new landscape' said Brown's editor and Doubleday vice president and executive editor Jason Kaufman, who also revealed that the narrative takes place over a 12-hour period. Mehta said that ‘Brown's prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait'. The wait is due to the ‘exhilarating challenge' of ‘weaving five years of research into the story's 12-hour timeframe,' said Brown.
Brown's The Da Vinci Code is Australia's biggest selling adult paperback novel of all time, and spent more than a year on the Australian bestseller lists. 81 million copies are in print worldwide. Brown's backlist titles Angels & Demons, Digital Fortress and Deception Point rank as Australia's 2nd, 3rd and 4th bestselling adult paperback novels of all time. Margie Seale, managing director of Random House Australia called it ‘a publishing event without compare'.
US and UK booksellers have already begun to take heavily discounted (up to 50% off) pre-orders, as reported in the Wall Street Journal and The Bookseller.
