Film historians usually trace the dawn of the blockbuster to the 1975 premiere of Jaws. That big shark has been shaping summer entertainment ever since. While the movie business cultivated the popcorn spectacle, the book business has the big beach read. But for all the major summer sellers—the ones by marquee authors and celebrities—there are plenty of titles that climb the charts more quietly and slowly.
PW looked beyond the top perch of the bestseller lists to the category that, arguably, the industry is worried about most—the midlist. These are the books that don't draw six- and seven-figure advances—and weren't acquired as “big books.”
For this piece we considered adult titles only, published as far back as April, in all print formats. And with the arguable exception of Jeffrey Zaslow's nonfiction account of a group of Midwest women through the years (The Girls from Ames), we uncovered an array of modest surprise hits. From a little literary paperback (The Outlander) to an eggheady, fascinating look at the merits of manual labor (Shop Class as Soulcraft), these are books that, whatever you dub them—midlist hits, summer sleepers—are defying expectations.
Title:The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow; Gotham, Apr.
BookScan* Sales: 115,000
Number of Printings: 16
Why It Stands Out: Does a bestselling coauthor translate to a bestselling author? That was the question with Jeffrey Zaslow's The Girls from Ames. Although the title had unquestionable book club and women's magazine appeal—it follows a group of Iowa women through 40 years of friendship (and various triumphs and tragedies)—and Zaslow had co-written the megahit The Last Lecture, Penguin wasn't sure how big it could make the author's solo effort.
Tipping Point: Borders was, according to Gotham's Beth Parker, the “early adopter” on this one; the chain did a number of shortlist e-mails and a video featuring “the girls” and Zaslow.
Title:All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown; Spiegel & Grau paperback, May
BookScan Sales: 54,000
Number of Printings: 7
Why It Stands Out: After Janelle Brown's novel sold moderately in hardcover—a rep from Random House said there are triple the number of paperbacks in print than the hardcover—S&G hit the pavement pushing this edition. Now the title is proving to be a case of classic paperback success.
Tipping Point: A major book club push that included a pre-pub rollout to various targeted Web sites, a mailing to book club coordinators and numerous phone chats/guest blogging appearances by the author.
Title:Renegade: The Making of a President by Richard Wolffe; Crown, June
BookScan Sales: 45,000
Number of Printings: 5
Why It Stands Out: Politics is a crowded subject on the bookshelf and summer isn't the popular season for Beltway reading. Then again, all bets are off when it comes to books about our current president, whose persona seems as much rock star as commander-in-chief. Wolffe's agent at ICM, Kris Dahl, said she thinks the book delivered on two fronts—it satiated readers' political interest in the campaign, but balanced it out with a human interest story. “While Richard gave us plenty of news and anecdotes, he also made Renegade a fascinating human tale about the president, his family and his aides.”
Tipping Point: Favorable reviews in both the New York Times and the Washington Post on pub day.
Title:The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson; Grand Central paperback, May
BookScan Sales: 40,000
Number of Printings: 4
Why It Stands Out: This is Jackson's first book to hit the Times extended list, and the promotional efforts were all about getting the book clubs on board; Jackson did over 30 book club appearances.
Tipping Point: A Web marketing campaign saw some 70 lit bloggers running reviews and giveaway contests.
Title:Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford; Penguin Press, May
BookScan Sales: 31,000
Number of Printings: 11
Why It Stands Out: This exploration of the nature of work, in which physical labor is championed and celebrated, was perfectly timed for this moment, as the economy tumbled, the unemployment rate soared and millions of Americans began wondering, What now? Penguin Press's Liz Calamari said she thinks the book “hit a nerve... since the economy was so down and people were rethinking, whether by choice or necessity, the meaning of their work.”
Tipping Point: A first serial in the New York Times Magazine that the Times told Penguin was one of the paper's third or fourth most e-mailed essays ever posted online.
Title:Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath by Michael and Elizabeth Norman; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, June
BookScan Sales: 22,000
Number of Printings: 5
Why It Stands Out: The antithesis of the frothy summer novel; editor Paul Elie thinks this somber nonfiction account of the 1942 battle for the Bataan peninsula is working precisely because FSG didn't try to “contort” the book into a pre-existing sales category, à la “the World War II book” or “the summer read.” Elie said: “It's a long, dark, unstinting book, a piece of literature, and we didn't try to disguise those qualities.”
Tipping Point: On Memorial Day the Times ran an “op-art” piece by Michael Norman, with art by Ben Steele. (Steele, a former soldier and artist, is one of the main subjects of the book, and his art appears throughout it.)
Title:The Outlander: A Novel by Gil Adamson; Ecco paperback, June
BookScan Sales: 22,000
Number of Printings: 4
Why It Stands Out: After getting some nice critical nods in hardcover, but underselling, Ecco has been making this title work in paper. We pulled it out because it's a small literary novel (by someone without her own publishing house or indie film career) and, whenever that sells, it's worth taking note. And for what it's worth, Ecco publisher Dan Halperin likened Adamson to Cormac McCarthy.
Tipping Point: Costco picked the book up as an assortment title, along with a number of other trade paperbacks, and, according to Ecco associate publisher Rachel Bressler, this got the book in front of a “new reader” for the imprint.
Title:Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart; Algonquin, May
BookScan Sales: 18,000
Number of Printings: 4
Why It Stands Out: Because it's a gardening book! Stewart's agent, Michelle Tessler, put it more pragmatically when she said readers are connecting with Stewart's ability to marry dramatic flair with lots of facts; there's “a lot of comedy and drama in [the] book, but not at the expense of real information.”
Tipping Point: After the book saw a big hit from a front-page feature in the New York Times's Home & Garden section, an August 2 segment on CBS Sunday Morning shot the book up to #12 on Amazon's bestseller list.
* BookScan captures roughly 75% of sales. Figures reflect sales through August 30, 2009.
