Lots of Action in Fiction
Daisy Maryles, with Dick Donahue -- 2/16/98
Four other new fiction books made it onto the national charts in the last two weeks and, while total first printings don't come close to Grisham's, all their publishers are pleased (especially considering that only about 1% of all books published in a given year ever land on PW's weekly lists).Leading the group is Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue (Random), with 150,000 copies in print. Her 14-city tour kicked off with appearances on the Today Show, Imus in the Morning, and Charlie Rose, plus a talk at Barnes &Noble/Union Square in Manhattan with 350 people in attendance. It's the cat's meow for Lilian Jackson Braun's 20th mystery featuring Koko and Yum Yum, two very clever Siamese who have endeared fans since their debut in 1996's The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. The latest, The Cat Who Sang for the Birds (Putnam), was published February 2 with a 150,000-copy first printing. Christopher Reich was already a winner when Delacorte plunked down $2 million for his first novel, Numbered Account, about corruption in the world of Swiss banking. Excellent reviews and praise from Nelson DeMille and James Patterson have buoyed sales. The book has been sold in 10 countries. Copies in print after two trips to press total 97,500; the author is just finishing a 10-city tour. Martin Amis is finishing up a 12-city tour for Night Train, a police procedural from Harmony Books that has received mixed reviews, a number of which have pointed to its brevity (175 pages) and fast pace as being among its selling points. To date, five trips to press bring the in-print total to more than 50,000 copies. Back To Bestsellers---> |
