Viking is the publisher other general trade houses are trying to emulate. Why? It has had the best success crossing a bestselling fiction author over from the Christian marketplace to the general (read: secular) trade marketplace. Viking did this with Jan Karon's popular Mitford novels, which have sold more than 10 million copies (see next week's PW Religion Supplement on the growth of religious fiction—in both sales figures and quality of writing). Karon makes it to the top of our fiction list this week with her eighth Mitford title, In This Mountain. Viking launched the book with a 650,000-copy first printing. Her last Mitford title, A Common Life, also landed on the top of the weekly hardcover fiction list, but held that spot for only a week.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
