Anne Rice lands in the #3 spot with Blood and Gold, the 2,000-year history of Marius, mentor to the Vampire Lestat. First printing was 750,000 copies, and Knopf has done some innovative marketing for the new book. A special insert was put in one million copies of Time and a short serial appeared in Delta's in-flight Sky magazine; TV ads on GMA and Today ran in the major markets; and Turner South (Southern Cable Television Network, with 10 million viewers) will air a Legend profile on Rice's favorite night of the year—Halloween.
Perking below the top 15 is Sue Miller's latest, The World Below. Knopf's first printing is 200,000 copies. Also, timing has been good for the publisher: its author V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize in Literature in early October, just two weeks before publication of Half a Life. The book's first printing was set at 20,500; a second printing of 43,000 and a third of 15,000 bring the total to 78,500.
With reporting by Dick Donahue.
