Simon & Schuster and nonprofit TED have agreed to co-publish a 12-book collection of TED books, with a new title to be released every one-to-two months, beginning in September 2014. The deal is for global rights, and the books will be published by Simon & Schuster in the U.S. and worldwide by its companies in Australia, Canada, India and the U.K. as well as in foreign-language editions.
The books will be short reads, up to 20,000 words, "long enough to fully explore a powerful idea yet designed to be read in a single sitting," according to the publisher. They will also feature a cover treatment by jacket artist and TED speaker Chip Kidd. The hardcover editions will be priced at $14.99.
“TED has mastered the art of launching intelligent conversations about important ideas, and these books will provide TED speakers past and future with the opportunity to go beyond their talks and take readers deeper into their work,” said Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of the Simon & Schuster Publishing Group.
The authors and titles set to be released under the global deal are travel writer Pico Iyer, author of The Virtue of Stillness; journalist Stephen Petranek, author of How We’ll Live on Mars; biologist Rob Knight, author of Follow Your Gut; the New Yorker's website editor, Nicholas Thompson, author of Storytelling in the Age of Distraction; and non-violence advocate Zak Ebrahim, author of The Terrorist's Son: Escaping Jihad.
“In the eight years since we made TED Talk videos available for free online, we've seen how millions of people globally are eager to engage with new ideas,” said executive producer of TED Media, June Cohen. “We feel fortunate to have a partner like Simon & Schuster that understands how to amplify ideas, and can provide avenues to make TED Books available around the world.”
