Time Inc. has a long list of of magazines with millions of readers--a perk for many reasons, not the least of which is a built-in editorial publicity machine that comes in handy when you're publishing books. It's worked for Sports Illustrated and Real Simple, and this fall, the company is betting on 23-year-old stalwart Health magazine, which Time acquired in 1993. Health is releasing its first-ever diet book, The CarbLovers Diet: Eat What You Want, Get Slim for Life, with corporate sibling Oxmoor House in August; a first print of 100,000 copies has been set. The combined muscle of Health's seven million readers (plus another seven million readers to its Web site every month), and the fact that the diet says we can all start eating carbs again may be a recipe for a bestseller.
Health editor-in-chief Ellen Kunes said that while the book is clearly a prescription for losing weight, she prefers to think of it as a "lifestyle plan." The CarbLovers Diet is based on recent studies that have shown that carbohydrates--long seen as the enemy to losing weight--actually make people thinner, not fatter. With full-color photos, many of them before-and-after, as well as 75 recipes that are quick and easy to prepare, the book feels like a long magazine article--a formula that has worked brilliantly for Rodale with the diet book series Eat This, Not That.
The CarbLovers Diet's premise alone should garner attention, but Oxmoor is going "full court press," said publisher Jim Childs. There will be editorial and review coverage, as well as house ads in many of Time Inc.'s "lifestyle" publications, which include All You, Cooking Light, InStyle and Real Simple. Health's July/August issue is on newsstands now, featuring a story and an excerpt on the book. Oxmoor is reaching beyond its magazines, too, orchestrating a word of mouth campaign that will feature celebrities talking about the book, and social media marketing via Twitter and Facebook.
The $24.95 hardcover goes on sale in August, bucking the traditional wisdom that diet books must be published to cash in on the "new year, new you" craze that typically occurs in January. Childs said the company chose to publish the book in August because the fall is becoming another season when people look to starting a healthier lifestyle. He also noted "the January timeframe is when everyone seems to go out there. Publishers need to be distinctive."
