Bestsellers

Behind the Bestsellers
Daisy Maryles -- 10/30/00

Cornwell D s It Again | Fangs for the Memories
Blackbird Is Set to Soar | Subway Series Reading

Cornwell D s It AgainThe scenario d sn't change. Each time a new Patricia Cornwell hardcover g s on sale, it immediately captures the #1 slot. That's what happened with the last six Kay Scarpetta thrillers, as well as Cornwell's The Hornet's Nest,which featured the sleuthing trio of Judy Hammer, Virginia West and Andy Brazil. The 11th Scarpetta, The Last Precinct, heads our list this week; Putnam launched it October 16 with a one-million-copy first printing (the same as for the last two Scarpettas, Black Notice and Point of Origin). Usually, Cornwell's hardcover tenure is at least three months, with about a third of that time in the lead spot; her paperback tenures range from two to three months. It will be interesting to see if she can sustain that kind of bestseller record in these very competitive times. Cornwell has done a fair amount of online publicity, including interviews, chats and events on Amazon.com, AOL/Compuserve, USA Today.com, iVillage.com and Yahoo! She is on a national tour that includes an appearance November 16 in San Francisco. In Scarpetta's home town, Richmond, Va., Cornwell delivered a live evening rush-hour traffic report--while piloting a helicopter.
Fangs for the MemoriesIn her 17th bestseller, Merrick, Anne Rice weaves together for the first time a story of the two worlds she has chronicled so famously--the witches' world and the vampires' world. At the center is the beautiful Merrick, whose ancestors are the great Mayfair witches from whom she inherits power and magical knowledge. Her tale is recounted by David Talbot--storyteller, adventurer and almost-mortal vampire--a character familiar to Rice's many readers. Knopf's first printing is 750,000, and the book takes the #2 spot its first week out. Rice's books have on a few occasions made it to the #1 spot after their initial week on sale (Servant of the Bones and Vampire Armand), and generally stay on the list for about three months. National laydown was October 17, and the official pub date was October 19. National media included a Good Morning America segment, Rosie O'Donnell and a one-hour profile on A&E's Biography.

Blackbird Is Set to SoarPocket Books is expecting its hardcover memoir Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found to land on the charts in the next few weeks. Critical praise, lots of media attention and the need for several trips to press just a few weeks after its October 10 publication are signs pointing in that direction. Jennifer Lauck's memoir of her turbulent life from ages five to 12 got great blurbs from the likes of Hope Edelman and Frank McCourt. The author's four-city tour was expanded to 13 cities and after she went to Frankfurt, rights were sold in 11 countries. Blackbird was also chosen as a Book Sense pick and by Borders for its Original Voices program. During Lauck's first TV appearance, on Rosie O'Donnell, the talk show host told everyone how moved she was by "the best book I've read in months" and gave copies to the studio audience. Immediately following Rosie, the book reached #12 on Amazon.com's list. Since the first printing of 27,500, Pocket has gone back to press four times, bringing the total to 130,000. Last Friday, Oprah aired a 15-minute one-on-one interview with Lauck, in which Oprah called Blackbird "a beautiful and amazing book" and said she "wishe[d] it could be a Book Club pick." Watch this space to see what happens next.


Subway Series ReadingOne would have thought baseball fans were too busy in the past week or so to read a book, even one about New York Yankee icon Joltin' J . It d sn't seem so, as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ben Cramer's J DiMaggio: The Hero's Life makes it onto PW's chart at #6, with 260,000 copies in print (first printing was 235,000; second was 25,000). The book was embarg d until October 17, for first serial in Newsweek, October 16; a second serial is scheduled for People on November 11. The author is in the midst of a nine-city tour and has appeared on several national talk shows.