It's not hard to see why Vintage jumped at the chance to publish The Iraq Study Group Report. While government studies have been of interest to the public in the past—think the Warren commission, the Starr report—Norton's publication of The 9/11 Commission Report in 2004 set a new standard for the publication of public documents: the 9/11 Report, while in the public domain and also available for free, sold 1.5 million copies in the Norton edition, according to the publisher, and was nominated for a National Book Award.
Five years later, with the American public almost as obsessed with the war in Iraq as it was with what started it, several publishers (including Norton) considered vying to publish the book. To hear Vintage tell it, the paperback imprint won out because it best addressed the issues that concerned the study group: quick turnaround and a well-orchestrated one-day laydown. And the house delivered: the book landed in most stores on December 6, the same day the report was released by the government, only five days after the publisher received the manuscript—and there were no leaks.
And so, it seems, Vintage has hit on the perfect win-win situation: it can make both a difference and some money. (Vintage spokesman Russell Perrault declined to comment on financial details, but because this is an official government report, it is unlikely any advance or royalties will be paid; an unspecified portion of Vintage's proceeds will go to the nonprofit National Military Family Association.) Never mind that the 96-page report (142 with appendices) is available as a free download on at least two Web sites and that the Vintage edition costs $10.95. The publisher is betting that enough readers will prefer the bound version. But will they? At press time, a few days after publication, the book sat at #2 on Amazon; the AP reports that The 9/11 Report, by contrast, hit #2 almost immediately and then sat at #1 for days. While there was some flurry of consternation that books had not arrived in stores by mid-afternoon on Wednesday—as well as reports that 300,000 copies were downloaded from the Institute of Peace Web site—booksellers with whom we talked seemed unconcerned. One said he had ordered the book but that it had not arrived yet—"not that anyone has asked for it." Another said she didn't order it because "most people wouldn't want to read the whole book." Many stores had the book on schedule; none reported a stampede.
"It's different from The 9/11 Report," one publishing executive opined. "That delved into history. This sounds mostly like policy—and it feels kind of like homework to me." In addition, The 9/11 Report was 568 pages—too cumbersome to download. And it addressed events that had happened on our soil; not policy about a war that, while deadly, is playing out half a world away.
Still, there's plenty of drama here. "This situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating," The Iraq Reportbegins, and then goes on to use words like "dire" and "lethality." So maybe The Iraq Study Group Report doesn't have the scope and gripping story line of its hugely successful forebear—and maybe President Bush isn't taking it seriously enough—but thanks to the book biz, the rest of us can have total access to an important document—in whatever form we choose to read it.
Agree? Disagree? Tell us atwww.publishersweekly.com/saranelson
