After decades spent simmering on the backlist backburner, J.R.R. Tolkien's monumental fantasy trilogy the Lord of the Rings is boiling again.
Nearly 50 years after Tolkien first tattooed the topography of Middle-earth onto the consciousness of a generation of readers, booksellers—and longtime fans—are gearing up for the hotly anticipated holiday release of New Line Cinema's film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, based on the first volume of the classic series, with films of the additional books to follow in subsequent years.
Tolkien has maintained a substantial and passionate cult over the years (more than 100 million Tolkien books have sold worldwide, and Lord of the Rings was voted "Book of the Century" by Amazon. com readers), and excitement has been building over Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring since trailers started showing up on the Internet last year—the trailer received 62 million hits the first week online. Houghton Mifflin's one-volume trade paperback movie tie-in edition of The Lord of the Rings, which shipped in May, has already gone back to press for a seventh printing, with one million copies now in print. Houghton Mifflin has been Tolkien's publisher for more than 60 years.
And there's more to come. Houghton Mifflin has an aggressive Tolkien movie tie-in program planned for the months leading up to the film's release. On November 6, the international laydown date of Houghton's two adult film tie-in titles—The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide and The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Visual Companion—100 selected bookstores around the country will sponsor lunchtime events featuring a 20-minute video created exclusively for Houghton that will include its Tolkien publishing history, never-before-seen interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and conversations with director Peter Jackson and artists Alan Lee and John Howe as well as some of the stars of the movie. According to Lori Glazer, Houghton's executive publicity director, bookstores will also be provided an in-store event kit if they want to supplement the screening with a trivia contest, in-store readings by fans of favorite scenes or other activities.
Houghton has also teamed with Book Sense for some consumer promotions, slated to begin September 22 with "Lord of the Rings Adventure Begins Here Sweepstakes" bookmarks, which will be distributed to customers through participating Book Sense stores. The bookmark will direct customers to the official sweepstakes Web site (booksense.com/lotr) to participate in a drawing for an all-expense-paid trip for two to the United States premiere of the film on December 12. Readers will also have the chance to win "instant prizes" such as Lord of the Rings hats, shirts, movie posters or Book Sense gift certificates. In addition to the trip to the movie premiere, there will be 10 first prizes (collectible Lord of the Rings sculptures from WETA Studios) and 76 second prizes (movies hats, shirts and posters).
"We're doing display contests," said Book Sense's Len Vlahos, as incentives for bookstores. The store with the best in-store display will win a trip for two to the movie premiere. The winner of a separate online display contest will receive a complete Tolkien library from Houghton Mifflin, with each book inscribed by film director Jackson.
"Houghton Mifflin could not be more thrilled to have Book Sense on board and to know that Book Sense stores have a great opportunity to become 'Tolkien destinations,' " said Bridget Marmion, Houghton's v-p, director of marketing. Book Sense officials estimated that 750 bookstores are already involved in the promotion.
"We're extremely excited," said Terry Finley, company spokesman for Books-A-Million, based in Birmingham, Ala. "It's already started to have an impact on sales. We put an end cap up in stores in April, and Tolkien sales doubled in May, and tripled in June. We intend to set up Tolkien shops in our stores in the fall, and we think this is clearly going to be the major event of the fourth quarter. I think you can see the natural progression from Harry Potter to Tolkien. My generation was around for the first big Tolkien wave, and this is something that the previous generation and the present generation can share a passion for."
Elizabeth LaVelle, the manager of Dream Haven Books in Minneapolis, agreed. "In our family, we start reading Tolkien to our kids when they're five or six. The Harry Potter phenomenon sort of passed us by, but I like to think that kids who've read those books would be excited by Lord of the Rings. Tolkien is definitely the classic fantasy writer, the man who shaped the direction of fantasy writing in our century."
Todd Illig, owner of Merchant of Venus books in Omaha, admitted that most of his regular customers have already read Tolkien, but suspects that many of them, spurred by the movie release and all the new exposure, will be going back and rereading him. "I am still surprised by how many readers of, say, Terry Brooks haven't yet discovered Tolkien," Illig told PW. "He's definitely the first place to go if you like that sort of thing. Many of these other fantasy writers are standing on Tolkien's shoulders."
"Tolkien seems to gain new life each year with new, younger readers discovering his books," said Musicland Group's director of marketing, Tod Dalberg. "The new Lord of the Rings product that's landed has already sold well for us, and I hear nothing but excitement from readers. I think that theatrical releases of book titles open the doors for retail to capture a whole new audience. We feel our strength as a company will be to leverage this property across the Best Buy enterprise. We especially see these titles doing very well in our Media Play, Suncoast and Best Buy stores."
Dan Blask, marketing associate with Milwaukee's Harry Schwartz Bookshops, hopes that as a younger audience discovers Tolkien, older readers will rediscover him as well. "Tolkien is one of those perennial sellers whose books seem to be mandatory reading as part of some life curriculum," Blask said. "At Schwartz, we're excited, definitely. We've bought the new editions and tie-ins aggressively. Our booksellers are jazzed, and we believe our community will be interested; our local Marquette University has manuscripts of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in their special collections. These sorts of saturation campaigns can be dangerous, but I think Tolkien has too sure a place in people's hearts, and Houghton Mifflin is producing classy stuff. It would be pretty difficult to dislodge Tolkien from people's affections."
"Every decade something seems to happen in the popular culture that brings Tolkien back into the middle of the conversation," noted Marmion. "This is a great opportunity for booksellers to introduce these books to a new generation of readers, and a chance to bring to the front of the store books they've been selling for decades."
