Waller--A Roads Scholar?

A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller hit the bookstores on April 23, but it's no stranger to PW's pages--the book's genesis has already been chronicled (News, Jan. 14 and Mar. 25) as making quite a splash for tiny John M. Hardy Publishing of Alpine, Tex. For starters, copublishers Jean and Mike Hardy upped the planned first printing a good bit--from 25,000 to 250,000 to the "real" figure, 355,000. According to Mike, "Our modus operandi has been completely different. We knew how to edit books and we knew how to design and produce Country Roads, but none of our past sales and distribution experience could be applied to this. It is over a hundred times as large as our biggest book project to date." Since the house "previously did everything," Mike adds, it's hired Client Distribution Services to handle distribution and Over the River Public Relations of Leonia, N.J., for promotion. For this book's release (10 years after the Bridges juggernaut), Waller has come out of seclusion to be interviewed on Today, ABC Radio and Extra; print coverage has included features in the New York Times, USA Today and People. Can a movie sale be far behind?

With reporting by Dick Donahue.