Three Fiction Debuts
by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 8/12/2002
It was a good week for E. Lynn Harris, Faye Kellerman and Perri O'Shaughnessy. All three made it onto PW's fiction hardcover in a week where the competition was strong.
Harris landed in the #2 spot with A Love of My Own, launched by Doubleday with a 250,000 printing; the book was the subject of the cover story in USA Today's Life Section the day before it went on sale. The publisher built a fun marketing ploy around the opening scene—a magazine editor hosting a "Sexiest Brothaman Alive" contest. Doubleday produced 20,000 "Sexiest Brothaman Alive" datebooks and models from the calendar are appearing as guests with the author at some of his signings (he is on a 25-city tour). The publisher is also running a "Sexiest Brothaman Alive" contest on Harris's Web site—the winner will receive a romantic grand prize designed for two.
Kellerman's Stone Kiss is the author's eighth national bestseller and her first for Warner. First printing was 235,000 and the publisher has already gone back for another 25,000. Warner is very pleased with Kellerman's commitment to making the book work. Assistant publicity director Jimmy Franco cited the day she took an early morning flight to New York from L.A. to speak to 100 sales reps. She signed copies for each of them before she spoke and, immediately afterward, ran to catch an overnight flight to Germany.
Rounding out the top 15 fiction is Perri O'Shaughnessy's Unfit to Practice from Delacorte. Written by sisters Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy, the book has 100,00 copies in print. Their latest paperback from Dell, Writ of Execution, is still on the USA Today list and has almost one million copies in print after three trips to press. Their eight Nina Reilly legal thrillers have combined printings of about 5.5 million copies.
