Milt Budoff, publisher of Brookline Books in Cambridge, Mass., is so excited by two books by investigative journalist Edwin Black, that he's doing everything that the big publishers do to promote them.

This includes creating a $150,000 marketing and promotion campaign for the May release, with a 150,000-copy first printing, of Format C:, a first novel and millennial technothriller (complete with now requisite Y2K hook) by Black, who started the now defunct Chicago Monthly as well as the award-winning computer magazine OS/2 Professional. Budoff has also set aside $95,000 to promote an updated edition of Black's Pulitzer Prize nominee, The Transfer Agreement (previously published by Macmillan in 1984), about a secret pact between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine that enabled 60,000 Jews and $100 million in assets to get out of Nazi Germany. It is due out in August with a print run of 75,000 copies, and has been optioned by the History Channel.

In order to finance the marketing for Black's books and to have more time to devote to them directly, Budoff has scaled back the 26-year-old press's list, best known for its books on disabilities, special education and pet health, from 20 to 25 books a year to just 15 books in 1999. In addition, Brookline switched distributors from Consortium to National Book Network (NBN) in January. "It represents a major reorientation," Budoff says.

So just why has Budoff re-oriented his world for Black? It all started last fall, when Budoff first met Black to talk about a reprint of The Transfer Agreement. Budoff remembered the controversy it provoked among the Jewish community at the time and figured there was a built-in audience for an update. When Black also mentioned he had an unpublished novel, Format C:, Budoff jumped on the chance to rush out the millennial technothriller before the year 2000. Budoff also believed Black's technology contacts from his computer magazine days would serve him well in promoting the book. And they have: as part of Black's 13-city tour, he'll speak at various techie gatherings as well as at bookstores.