Debut author C.L. Wilson owes a debt to Nora Roberts, even if she doesn't know it. Wilson's initial 1,000-page manuscript was broken into two standalone novels: Lord of the Fading Lands came out from Dorchester in October and Wilson's second book—with some light rewriting—Lady of Light and Shadows, is out this month. According to the team at Dorchester, the unusual release schedule was inspired by a recent tactic Penguin used for Roberts.
Dorchester didn't pluck the idea directly from Penguin, but from wholesaler Levy. John Lindsay, Levy's v-p of marketing, suggested to Dorchester senior v-p of sales Tim De Young that the way to break out an author is to release multiple books in consecutive months. Lindsay had seen the method work several times and was initially keyed into it when Penguin's Jove imprint had a major success with Roberts's Circle trilogy.
Lindsay said the consecutive “trilogy concept” has been shown to work in the romance category, where the readership is voracious and quick to buy new titles. Lindsay said Harlequin has also been testing the trilogy concept with good results. “Everywhere we've tried it, we're batting 1.000,” Lindsay said, noting that the books must be spaced roughly 30 to 60 days apart and the trilogy should be heavily advertised in the first book.
Wilson's books don't exactly follow the same formula—they're not romance and are a two-book set—but Dorchester thinks splitting the work into two mass market volumes is adding to its success. With 225,000 copies in print of Fading Lands and a 300,000-copy announced first printing for Lady of Light and Shadows, the house expects strong sales, with repeat buys from readers of the first book and new buyers who purchase both titles together. (Dorchester paid for an extra month of co-op for Fading Lands so the books can be sold side-by-side by retailers.)
“It's really one book split into two pieces,” explained Dorchester editorial director Alicia Condon. Condon, who edited the title, said the split was possible only because “the editorial was there,” and added that while the books do stand alone—the first closes with a mention of the second—she “can't imagine anyone reading the second book and not wanting to go back and get the first.” Dorchester is planning to release two more back-to-back titles by Wilson, in October and November 2008.
As for Lindsay, he's eager to see how the trilogy marketing concept fares in other categories. “It's been so successful in romance that taking it to other genres is kind of intriguing to me now.”
