Faber details campaign for Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun

Faber has detailed its publicity and marketing for Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, published this week, which features the first ever in-conversation public event between Ishiguro and his daughter, Naomi.

The Southbank Centre will host the first live conversation event to discuss Klara and the Sun and Naomi’s debut novel, Common Ground (Tinder). Ishiguro is also scheduled to speak at the International Literature Festival Dublin with Sinéad Gleeson, the FTWeekend Festival with fellow Nobel Prize-winner Venki Ramakrishnan, the Manchester Literature Festival with Jackie Kay, and more to be announced, including a nationwide bookseller event with Bookshop.org.

Ishiguro’s life and work will be explored in an "Imagine" documentary on BBC One and Klara and the Sun will be read on BBC Radio 4, beginning on 8th March.

Faber’s publicity launched on 20th February in Guardian Review, featuring Ishiguro’s first global interview, first extract and a piece by writers including Margaret Atwood, Madeleine Thien and Ian Rankin, recommending their favourite Ishiguro novel. A second major profile ran in the Sunday Times on 21st February, followed by a range of interviews across the Irish Times, inews and Harper’s Bazaar.

Ishiguro was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s "Today" programme earlier this week (1st March)in addition to BBC News at One and Channel 4 News, with further interviews planned, including Virgin Radio, RT√â and various popular podcasts.

Waterstones hosted an exclusive online signing with Ishiguro where 100 ticket-holders had the opportunity to meet the Nobel winner via Zoom. Guardian Live hosted Ishiguro’s first global in-conversation event with Alex Clark on 2nd March, the novel’s publication day. Over 4,000 tickets were sold.

The marketing campaign launched in September, with a reveal of the cover via a large-scale billboard and signed special-edition proofs. One of Faber’s most extensive pre-order social advertising campaigns has been live since January. The advertising campaign also includes a special-build, illuminated billboard in Shoreditch, which will go live for two weeks on 8th March. Television advertising will run throughout March on Sky Arts and online on 4 On Demand, and a podcast advertising campaign will target literary fiction fans. The trade marketing has included point-of-sale packs for every Waterstones store in the country when bookshops reopen in April, along with many independent bookshops.

Communications director Rachel Alexander said: "This campaign has been a global event, bringing together all the skills, tools and partnerships that make the modern publishing environment such an exciting place. We are very grateful to our retail, events and media partners in supporting our campaign during lockdown, and we are delighted to have marked the eve of publication with a lively virtual signing impressively arranged by Waterstones. Katie Hall’s and Niriksha Bharadia’s creative and imaginative marketing campaign has used strong graphics to produce beautiful animations, billboards and lightboxes to capture the world of the book. Faber has published Ishiguro for 40 years and this is undoubtedly a very special moment for everyone in the company. It has been a joy to see the early responses from reviewers and booksellers as we reach publication."