PW: Nota Bene

The Power of Oprah
There was jubilation in June at New World Library, as the California-based small press learned that Oprah had included its November title The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenmentby Eckhart Tolle, on the "O List" in the July-August issue of O:TheOprahMagazine. It is one of four items that Oprah selected as "A few things I think are just great," and the only book (Meg Ryan recommended it to her). New World had a second printing of 25,000 ordered, but immediately rushed an additional 50,000 copies into print, bring- ing the total to 100,000. The press acquired the book from Namaste Publishing in Canada (where Tolle lives); it became a word-of-mouth phenomenon there. U.S booksellers in the body-mind-spirit category took it up with the same enthusiasm--it was a BookSense 76 selection for November- December and climbed to #8 on the NCIBA list the last week in April. It was also a featured alternate selection of One Spirit Book Club. Described by New World as "A Course in Miracles meets The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success," the book outlines Tolle's Buddhist-inflected ideas on how to achieve joy by living fully in the moment. New World Library publisher Marc Allen is among those campaigning for the adoption of new terminology to describe consumers who have previously been referred to as New Agers. He prefers "cultural creatives," a term coined by sociologist Paul Ray to describe an estimated 50 million Americans who seek spiritual enlightenment and mental and physical health through a variety of Eastern and Western religions, philoso-phies and disciplines. Allen told PW, "Oprah is definitely a 'cultural creative,' probably the leading one alive, certainly in terms of her impact on the mainstream media." Added Allen, "It was Oprah's championing of Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain in the early '80s that helped to launch that book, and indeed our whole company." More help from Oprah: a segment on the spiritual aspects of cooking featured New World Library's The Sacred Kitchen by Jon and Robin Robertson (1999); it aired June 30.

Singing Ricky's Song
When former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong was gunned down by a white supremacist in suburban Chicago last year, it was probably hard for his widow Sherialyn to see how anything good could come out of that senseless act. But then again, maybe not, since she is a woman of faith. Sherialyn Byrdsong went on to finish the book her husband had been working on at the time of his death, on a topic he cared about deeply: raising happy, healthy kids. The couple's efforts have paid off--Coaching Your Kids in the Game of Life, written with Dave and Neta Jackson (Bethany House, May), has garnered lots of national media attention, including an appearance by Sherialyn Byrdsong on the Today show (set to air July 5). Tom Brokaw has also taped an interview for a Dateline NBC special on violence in America that airs July 21. Newsweek ran an item on the book in its June 12 issue, Reader's Digest will feature an excerpt in its August issue and Guideposts is planning an article for later this year. Bethany House quickly sold out of a 10,000-copy first printing and has rushed an additional 15,000 into print, with press time already reserved for a third run.

That Ain't Peanuts

No grief: this backlist is helping WJK's profits.

Westminster John Knox Press, the trade publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is basking in the glow of record-breaking sales this spring, with three consecutive $1 million-sales months during the first quarter of 2000. Contributing to those robust sales was the unexpected success of a 35-year-old title, The Gospel According to Peanuts by Robert L. Short. According to Westminster marketing director Bill Falvey, their hardcover first edition and a late-'60s Bantam mass market edition sold 10 million copies. This January, WJK released an anniversary edition. The press expected the impending retirement of Charles Schultz to help sales, but when the beloved cartoonist died, Westminster found itself in a third printing by March; a fourth came off the press in early June, for a total in print of 40,000.
Back to Sacred Presents All Year Round
Back To
--->