Behind the Bestsellers
Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 6/28/1999
THE SHADOW KNOWS Bob Woodward's Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate has not only generated strong sales since its June 15 pub date but has also stirred much debate around the Beltway. The Washington Post asked, "Deep Throat Redux?" when reporting on lawyers and Clinton pals buzzing about Bob Bennett's conduct as noted in the book; and Newsweek's Ann McDaniel said that Woodward's "revealing" tome will teach candidates in 2000 important post-Watergate lessons. Simon & Schuster has already gone back to press three times, and reports more than 500,000 copies in print. In addition to traveling to five cities, Woodward has seemingly appeared on every broadcast outlet, including Dateline, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose, NPR's Talk of the Nation, CNN's Crossfire, CNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Fox News Channel's Politics with Brit Hume, etc. S&S associate publicity director Aileen Boyle notes that Web sites began posting pieces just as soon as books hit the stores.
HIS FANS GOT TIME TO READ
One of the major surprises of the 1998 elections was Jesse Ventura's victory in the Minnesota gubernatorial race. After the former pro wrestler beat out established politicians, it's not such a surprise that his memoir, I Ain't Got Time to Bleed, is hitting bestseller charts. Villard's first printing of the May 21 release was 125,000; two trips back to press have raised the total to 175,000. Ventura has appeared on the three major networks' morning programs, and his stints on Larry King Live and Tonight garnered top ratings for both shows. The May 26 Tonight, in fact, grabbed the show's highest Wednesday-night rating ever, and will be rebroadcast on July 5. (The fact that Ricky Martin was also a guest that night certainly didn't hurt.) Yesterday Ventura appeared on ABC's This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, and he's set to guest on today's Rivera Live on CNBC. In preparation for a C-SPAN documentary about a book tour (airing early next month), a camera crew recently followed Ventura on one day of his five-city junket.
BEYOND THE GREAT BEYOND
The fact that Louis L'Amour is one of the bestselling writers of all time-more than 260 million copies sold of his 117 books-is hardly news. What is noteworthy, however, is his remarkable staying power more than 10 years after his death. Now Bantam's Beyond the Great Snow Mountains (pub date: May 11) hits PW's fiction list with more than 260,000 copies in print after four printings. This collection brings together 10 long-unavailable stories published in pulp magazines in the '40s and '50s. L'Amour's durability is due in large part, reported Bantam publicity manager Chris Artis, to the efforts of his family-his widow, Kathy, and his son, Beau, and daughter, Angelique, who continue to honor a commitment they made before his death to keep his writing alive. Kathy L'Amour has done several national and local radio interviews since the publication of Snow Mountains.
ANOTHER NOTCH IN THE PHANTOM BELT
Besides Mother of Pearl, Oprah's latest book club pick (which we covered in last week's column), today's other new fiction entry demonstrates staying power of a very different sort. Star Wars Episode I: Visual Dictionary was published by DK on May 3 with a 1.1-million-copy printing. (It's not surprising that George Lucas's latest is spawning bestsellers: The Phantom Menace has become the sixth top-grossing movie of all time in-as this column went to press-the 37 days since its release.) Author David West Reynolds was until recently freelancing for LucasFilms; because of his access to confidential material about the film, he was prevented from doing any promotion for his book. Currently not in the employ of LucasFilms, he is doing a small tour, reports DK, which includes appearances at this past weekend's ALA convention in New Orleans and a July speaking date at the Smithsonian.
