Pan Macmillan has launched US novelist Percival Everett’s first ever UK book tour as part of a major campaign for his new novel James (Mantle).
The campaign includes a special billboard installation, major radio appearances and a significant tour this week, starting at Storysmith Books store in Bristol on Monday (8th April) before heading to Topping & Co in Edinburgh on Tuesday (9th April), moving on to Manchester Lit Fest on Wednesday (10th April) and Foyles on Charing Cross Road on Thursday (11th April).
A highlight from the tour includes back-to-back events in Brixton on Saturday (13th April), starting with a Q&A and screening of “American Fiction” – the Oscar-winning film based on Everett’s novel Erasure (Pan Macmillan) – at the Ritzy Cinema. This will be followed by a sold-out event at Brixton Library, at which Everett and author Caleb Azumah Nelson will be in conversation. The tour concludes with an appearance at Oxford LitFest later that day.
James is Everett’s 24th novel and is billed by Pan Macmillan as “a bold, powerful, funny retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Told from the perspective of Huck’s travelling companion, the enslaved character Jim, the book “is tipped as one of 2024’s biggest publications,” the publisher said.
PR activity includes “a sweep” of radio interviews including BBC Radio 4, 5Live Afternoon and Radio 3 alongside print interview features in the Guardian, the Times, New Statesman and the i newspaper.
Overall, highlights from the almost year-long marketing campaign include a creative 3D billboard installation near London’s Borough Market, major print advertising in the Observer, multiple proof runs and influencer outreach, web and video content, social media promotion and “eye-catching POS for retailers”, Pan Macmillan said.
The publisher added: “The communications campaign accompanies a groundswell of retailer support, with promotions and displays lined up with Waterstones, independent retailers, Bookshop.org, and a huge window display at Foyles Charing Cross Road.”
This follows a Booker shortlisting for Everett’s previous novel The Trees, the release of “American Fiction”, and the blockbuster US launch for James (which became an instant New York Times bestseller). “The marketing and publicity team at Pan Macmillan are continuing this momentum, launching a huge campaign to ensure that no stone is left unturned in their efforts to break Everett out as a major literary name in the UK,” the publisher said.
Maria Rejt, Mantle’s publisher, said: “This is a momentous campaign for a remarkable novel. From national media coverage to sell-out events in London, we wanted to ensure that as many readers as possible would know that publication of James was to be the major literary event of the year. Camilla Elworthy, Percival Everett’s publicist at Mantle, has orchestrated a brilliant campaign for his first ever UK tour, and as the universal acclaim for James has already demonstrated, it is set to become a much-beloved modern classic.”
