Today's other hardcover fiction debut, Eric Jerome Dickey's Thieves' Paradise, has 120,000 copies in print. Dutton's doing extensive Web marketing as well as national print and radio advertising. Dickey's out on a 20-city media and bookstore tour—in the words of Dutton's executive publicity director Lisa Johnson, "He's a former stand-up comic and a great reader/performer. It takes a lot to keep Eric's fans away from one of his book signings." On the book's on-sale date [May 13], over 150 people turned out during tornado watches and torrential rains in Durham, N.C. The author's tour culminates with the Essence Festival in New Orleans in early July—with balmier weather, we hope.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
