Decades after Random House published it—and several years after it fell out of print—Alex Haley's iconic bestseller Roots has a new home and is set to reemerge with a high-profile marketing campaign. Perseus's Vanguard Press will publish the book in late May, in trade paperback for the first time. The 1972 title will be celebrated in a promotional campaign timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the miniseries adaptation of the book. The book will benefit from Warner Brothers' marketing around the release of the first DVD edition of the 1977 miniseries. Roger Cooper, v-p and publisher of Vanguard, which touts a "new publishing model" in which authors receive higher royalties in lieu of advances, said he jumped at the chance to add Roots to his small list (which currently has four titles). He was able to do so because Random House had let the book go out of print after reaching a stalemate with the Haley estate, which controls the book's rights. A Doubleday spokesperson declined to discuss details of the negotiations.
Literary agent Arthur Klebanoff, who brokered the Roots reprint deal, said Random House made an offer but the Haley estate was less interested in a large advance than in an innovative publishing approach. Klebanoff said the Haley family was unhappy that Random House didn't do more with the book when it had it, citing the fact that Roots has remained in the same mass market edition it first appeared in during the late 1970s without ever being released in trade paperback or audio.
"The world changes and clever publishers... change with it," Klebanoff said. He added: "You can't reinvigorate the dead, but I'm talking about a few books, and Roots is one of them, where it's iconic and has a significant backlist life, but the publication approach hasn't been revisited in years."
Random House declined to disclose sales figures, but according to Nielsen BookScan, Roots sold a combined 7,000 copies of two mass market editions from 2002 through Dec. 3, 2006. Klebanoff said royalty statements (not provided to PW) show that prior to 2002, when the book was still being actively published, it moved 30,000 copies a year.
Of course, Roots carries a certain amount of notoriety; Haley was slapped with two plagiarism suits shortly after the book came out (one of which he settled out of court for $600,000). And Haley has been criticized for making up parts of his nonfiction book. While Cooper said he won't ignore those aspects of the past—he plans to add a note about the plagiarism charges to a Haley biography he's including in the Vanguard edition—he doesn't think the controversy is the story. "My personal perspective has always been that this book is a cultural phenomenon.... It's an important document that still stands on its own."
Klebanoff, who admitted one major publisher had declined to make an offer on the book because of the plagiarism issues, thinks the events could work in Vanguard's favor. "Is this book valuable to read? Should people read this book? Frankly it's a question I would court," he said. "Correctly published, all of this is a plus. Cowardly published, it's a minus."
