Responding to strong interest from bookstores, tiny Iron Mountain Press is upping the initial print run of Robert James Waller's A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to the Bridges of Madison County from the previously announced 25,000 copies to more than 250,000. The sequel to the 1992 bestseller The Bridges of Madison County was signed by the small Texas press in January (News, Jan. 14) and is its fifth title. The press is a division of John M. Hardy Publishing, the publishing arm of Front Street Books, which has bookstores in Alpine and Marathon, Tex.
Co-publisher Jean Hardy told PW, "Robert and his agent convinced us to go bigger. It was a little scary at the onset, but we're confident now. We've had heavy interest from the chains and 300,000 preorders."
The book is being printed simultaneously by printers in Texas and the Midwest. It is being distributed by Client Distribution Services and expected to be in bookstores April 23. To support publication, Iron Mountain has enlisted the help of a New Jersey publicity firm, which helped secure spots for Waller on NBC's Today and CBS's The Morning Show. In addition, WalMart stores will be running interviews with Waller on their in-store monitors.
