The obliteration of the World Trade Center and the crushed Pentagon herald not only a new era of vulnerability for the U.S., but a dramatic change in the cultural zeitgeist. In the wake of the attacks, publishers are questioning not only the level of sales they can expect as the country braces for retaliation, but which titles will rise and fall as fortune's wheel turns.

"We're certainly worried about the fall," Warner president Larry Kirshbaum told PW, "but there may be a kind of second wind in October and November, which is the heart of the fall sales season. It's very possible that people will come back in a few weeks, revived and thinking we have to live our lives to the fullest. If that's the case, consumer confidence could return."

Despite the tragic fallout of the attacks, and the cloudy outlook for consumer spending and author travel, other executives see a silver lining. Many note fall books that seem newly relevant, or report plans to rush titles to press. Echoing others, Matty Goldberg, v-p of sales and marketing for Perseus Book Group, observed, "We are finding a surge of books from our backlist that are working really well now."

Many publicists noted that it is inappropriate to pitch hard in a crisis, and that they are focusing on books and authors that might help readers cope emotionally or intellectually with the new outlook. "Any books coming out now, where authors can lend wisdom, will [keep their media bookings]," said Carol Schneider at Random House. While many booksellers reported that sales were down in the days immediately following the attacks, stores around the country reported an immediate jump in sales for titles related to terrorism and Middle Eastern politics as well as titles on inspiration, grieving and overcoming loss.

Terrorism and Politics

"We've seen a strong interest in books on terrorism, like The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism by Simon Reeve [Northeastern Univ. Press] and Ultimate Terrorist by Jessica Stern [Harvard Univ.]," a bookseller at Books Inc. in San Francisco told PW.

By coincidence, Simon & Schuster published Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War by Judith Miller, William Broad and Stephen Engleberg on the day of the attacks. Almost immediately, the book shot to the top of Amazon.com's bestseller list. Having started with 15,000 copies, S&S now has 115,000 copies in print.

Yale University Press has just released 10,000 copies of the paperback edition of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, who has covered Afghanistan for 25 years. Yale has already gone back to press for another 50,000 copies and expects further reprints. The author has been doing media interviews from Lahore, Pakistan, "at a feverish pace," according to Heather D'Auria, assistant publicity manager at the press.

Also ascendant for Yale is Five Days in London: May 1940 by John Lukacs, which New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani mentioned he is reading "when he can find the time." The book has sold more than 70,000 hardcover copies to date; the paperback edition, published September 1, is in its third printing.

New York University Press, which publishes extensively in the areas of Islam and Middle Eastern studies, reports media and bookstore buyer interest in Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban, edited by William Maley (1998), a collection of essays by experts in the field.

The University of Washington Press was right on time with its September publication of Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban by Larry P. Goodson, associate professor of international studies at Bentley College, Waltham, Mass. After an initial printing of 750 hardcovers and 1,000 paperbacks, the press is going back for 1,000 hardcovers and 6,500 paperbacks.

Grove/Atlantic reports media interest in The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan by Artyom Borovik, published this year. Author Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) is also doing a lot of media.

As readers began to contemplate the American response to the terrorist attacks, Doubleday's Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century by James Bamford became one of Amazon.com's "movers and shakers," shooting up the list in recent days. "A lot of media are calling on Bamford as an expert on national security," noted Madeleine MacIntosh, v-p and director of sales for Ballantine, Bantam, Dell, Doubleday and Broadway.

Over at Vintage Books, reprints are in the works for numerous authors who have presented background analysis in the media, including Robert Kaplan (The Coming Anarchy; Ends of the Earth; and Balkan Ghosts), Thomas Friedman (The Lexus and the Olive Tree; From Beirut to Jerusalem) and Edward Said (Orientalism and The End of the Peace Process).

This week, Crown/Three Rivers will release 30,000 copies of the paperback edition of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America by Yossef Bodansky, director of a congressional task force on terrorism and unconventional warfare. Originally published by Prima in hardcover two years ago, the 400-page tome offers a detailed portrait of the man who is the alleged mastermind behind the recent attacks. A portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to humanitarian efforts.

Pluto Press's Reaping the Whirlwind, a study of the Taliban by Michael Griffin, is back on press, with copies expected in three to four weeks. A British publisher whose books are distributed in the U.S. by Stylus Publishing LLC, Pluto is also reprinting Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, updated as of October 2000, which also went out of stock following the recent tragedy. The book was written by ABC correspondent John K. Cooley.

Seven Stories publisher Dan Simon said he's braced for an uptick in sales for the press's Open Media Pamphlets, a series of 60-page broadsides, which includes Policing Rogue States, with essays by Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark and Edward Said. He also reports having received interview requests about Algerian White by novelist, poet and scholar Assia Djebar from European media covering the World Trade Center disaster, and Simon is expecting attention from U.S. media in the coming weeks.

Among the spring 2002 books being rushed into print is Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden by Peter Bergen, who will finish his book for the Free Press in November.

Westview Press, which has an extensive Middle Eastern list, will push up the paperback publication of Shadow of the Prophet: Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Milton Viorst, originally published in hardcover by Doubleday. Formerly scheduled for February, publication is now set for October. Where the press "probably would have printed 5,000" before the attacks, Matty Goldberg, Perseus Book Group v-p of sales and marketing, estimates that it will "double or treble that."

Kensington has moved publication of Terrorism: Today's Biggest Threat to Freedom by John Pynchon Holms, which was originally scheduled for February 2002, to the first week of October. Written with Tom Burke, a military and national intelligence expert, the mass market reference was originally published in 1996, and recently updated.

With the manuscript already in hand, HarperCollins has pushed up The Price of Terror: One Bomb. One Plane. 270 Lives. The History-making Struggle for Justice After Lockerbie by Allan Gerson, an expert in international law who is representing U.S. families in their case against Libya, and Jerry Adler, a senior editor at New York Newsday. The first printing, originally projected at 35,000 copies, "will probably go up," Patti Kelly, Harper's senior director of publicity, told PW.

Books that predict disaster have been equally successful. Consumer demand continues for books about Nostradamus and his now-debunked prophecies about the Wold Trade Center attack. HarperCollins is going back to press for 15,000 copies of The Secrets of Nostradamus by David Ovason. Similarly, Dover plans to go back to press for Nostradamus and His Prophecies.

Books on grieving, spirituality and mourning are also being sought. HarperCollins is reprinting the paperback edition of the bestselling When Bad Things Happen to Good People (Avon). The house is giving away copies of the book at the Family Assistance Center on Pier 94 in New York City and working with the Red Cross to distribute copies. "We're reprinting like mad," said Harper's Jeanette Zwart, for a total print run of over 200,000. Random House will also be releasing Robert Coles's Lives of Moral Leadership: Inspirational Stories About Moral Leaders and Their Styles of Leadership in paperback in October.

The rise in attacks on innocent Muslims and Arab residents might serve to highlight books on tolerance. Sally Jordan, owner of Jeremy's Books and Toys in Houston, Tex., told PW the store "sold tons" of It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr (Little, Brown).

The World Trade Center bombings resonated in places far away from New York, and titles about the fallen buildings continue to sell heavily throughout the U.S. There's been strong interest in Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center by Angus Kress Gillespie (Rutgers Univ. Press) and Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center by Eric Darton (Basic Books) has also been selling well. The latter went back to press for an additional 15,000, after a 5,000-copy first printing.

Other Gotham-themed books include architect Matteo Pericoli's rendering of the Manhattan skyline in an accordion-fold book titled Manhattan Unfurled, due out from Random next month; a memoir by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, which Talk Miramax is planning for spring but which may move up; and ReganBooks' memoir by NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik, a November 13 release for which the publisher will add an epilogue. Finally, Context has just released Elissa Wald's novel Holding Fire, which is based on real-life firefighter Jonah Malone, a legend in firefighting circles, who died while trying to rescue victims of the attack.