TED and Simon & Schuster to Co-Publish TED Books Series

 

New York, N.Y., April 8, 2014—TED Conferences LLC and Simon & Schuster announced today that they will co-publish a boutique, 12-book collection of TED Books, with a new title released every one-to-two months, starting in September 2014. The books will be available in hardcover, e-book, and in audiobook. The co-publishing agreement is for world rights, and the books will be published by Simon & Schuster in the United States and worldwide by its companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, as well as in foreign-language editions.

TED’s mission is to provide a worldwide platform for “ideas worth spreading.” TED Books – which are short books of up to 20,000 words – are long enough to fully explore a powerful idea yet designed to be read in a single sitting. Among the authors and titles to be published under this global publishing agreement are:

•  Travel writer Pico Iyer, The Virtue of Stillness
• Journalist Stephen Petranek, How We’ll Live on Mars
• Biologist Rob Knight, Follow Your Gut
• NewYorker.com editor Nicholas Thompson, Storytelling in the Age of Distraction
• Non-violence advocate Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist’s Son: Ending a Legacy of Hate

The books will feature a signature look with cover art designed by the legendary jacket artist and TED speaker, Chip Kidd.

As of today, the more than 1,700 available TED Talk videos have been viewed nearly two billion times on TED.com and other platforms.

“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.

“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.”

TED and Simon & Schuster will distribute the books in all available sales channels, and the books will be supported by TED’s media partners and the highly-trafficked TED.com website.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman. The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast event in nearby Whistler. The annual TEDGlobal conference will be held this October in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, selforganized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED.

About Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Julia Prosser, Simon & Schuster, 212-698-7529, julia.prosser@simonandschuster.com