The tragic shooting in Arizona has piqued interest in one seemingly unlikely title from HCI. The nine-year-old girl who died in the tragedy, Christina Green Taylor, was born on September 11, 2001, and was featured in HCI’s book Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11, which came out in 2002. The book was never a big seller for HCI, with just a 10,000-copy first printing, but interest in it has spiked since the events last weekend.
This week, HCI has been fielding media inquiries about Faces of Hope, which is a collection of photos of babies born on September 11 with a few words beside each photo. So far Good Morning America, the Today Show, the Associated Press, Yahoo, and the New York Times have mentioned Taylor’s inclusion in it (some also showed the book cover), and director of communications Kim Weiss is also fielding requests from the U.K. Amazon had less than 100 copies in stock and sold out by Sunday night. The retailer ordered more on Monday and should have books in stock early next week, said Weiss. A Kindle version of the book became available on Monday, and the book, a $9.95 paperback, is also for sale at the publisher's Web site.
Weiss said HCI is considering going back to press but is first watching what happens in the marketplace this week. The Deerfield Beach, Fla., publisher prints on site and can reprint the books in two days.
HCI president and publisher Peter Vegso said, “When I received a text from Kim Weiss alerting me about the book, it caught me off guard. I found a copy in my home and remembered the spirit this book was published in. Maybe it’s time we can see the positive coming out of something so tragic.”
