Shreve's 'Fortune Rocks'
A PW boxed, starred review of Anita Shreve's latest novel, Fortune Rocks, noted that "In what surely will be a milestone in her career, Shreve has produced a literary novel with enormous appeal." It also noted that the book "should take off like a rocket." Sales in the first week have been strong, especially in independent bookstores. Little, Brown has already gone back to press for 25,000 more copies to supplement the 250,000 first printing. The author's 14-city tour begins in January, as d s her ad campaign. The trade paper edition of The Pilot's Wife has 2,435,000 copies after 21 trips to press; it has been a fixture on the trade paper charts since early April, when Oprah selected the book as her 23rd book club pick. Another Shreve backlist enjoying increased sales is The Weight of Water, with 330,000 copies in print after 18 trips to press. Filming of the movie (in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia) based on the 1997 book has begun; the stellar cast includes Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley and Sarah Polley.
'The World' According to Oprah
Get ready for another instant bestseller: Ms. Winfrey has just announced the latest selection (#29) of her on-air book club--the last for this millennium. It's A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton, originally published by Doubleday in 1994 and chosen as one of PW's Best Books of the Year. (In a boxed and starred review, PW called the work "a piercing picture of domestic relationships under the pressure of calamitous circumstances"; the hardcover and trade paper editions spent a total of 15 weeks on our bestseller lists.) This is Hamilton's second novel; her first, The Book of Ruth, was also anointed by Oprah (in December 1996) and now has 1.5 million copies in print. The Anchor paperback edition of Map has sold 400,000 copies; the publisher is now printing 750,000 more copies. The film version of A Map of the World, which stars Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore, has already garnered significant industry buzz; it was released last Friday in New York and L.A. for a special one-week engagement to qualify for Academy Award consideration (regular engagements begin next month).
A Jewel of an Author
According to the folks at Berkley, a Nora Roberts novel is sold every five minutes to a customer in the U.S. That pace might have been even quicker these past few weeks as her newest bestseller, Jewels of the Sun, shines in the #1 slot on the mass market chart for two weeks in a row. First printing by Berkley's Jove imprint was 1.85 million; total copies in print after four trips to press is two million. Jewels is the first in her new Irish trilogy. Her publisher noted that by the end of 1999, Roberts will have published 133 novels in 25 languages. She began her career about 20 years ago, so she averages at least six books per year.
'Angela's Ashes' Redux
In anticipation of the forthcoming movie of one of the bestselling memoirs of all times, Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, Touchstone has published two movie tie-in editions--a mass market at $7 and a trade paperback at $14. The decision was based on an informal poll of accounts, which were queried as to which edition they would prefer to sell. Both would be well received, was the general response. The first printing on the mass market is about 1.2 million; for the trade paper edition, 450,000. Currently, Touchstone has about 1,475,000 copies of the original trade paperback edition in print and 2,345,000 of the hardcover. The combined total for the hardcover, trade paperback and movie tie in editions: 5,470,000. The movie, a Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures International release produced by David Brown and Scott Rudin, is set to open in New York and L.A. on December 22, with a wide release after the New Year.
With reporting by Dick Donahue.
