Comma Commentary

The title says it all: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. It's Gotham Books' new bestseller, landing on PW's nonfiction list in the #4 spot. Published in the U.K. by Profile Books, a small independent house, the book's first British printing was a modest 15,000 copies. After four months at the top of the charts, the print figure swelled to 830,000. Gotham's first printing was an aggressive 115,000 copies, and even before pub date that figure was increased to 133,000; two more pre-pub printings totaling 22,000 were ordered. One day after its April 12 on-sale date, a fourth printing of 45,000 copies was ordered, and two days later, Gotham went back for another 75,000 copies. After one more week, another 60,000 were ordered. On April 22, there was a seventh printing of 75,000. All together, the printings add up to 410,000 copies in print. Gotham president William Shinker said that he had never seen this sort of a buzz in this country for a book that has been a bestseller in the U.K. And certainly not for a book that brings new meaning to PC—punctuation correctness. Gotham's v-p and executive director of publicity, Lisa Johnson, noted that people at a standing-room-only event at Manhattan's Coliseum Books on April 19 said they had been waiting six months for the book. The author has gotten lots of airtime and has been on or is scheduled for a wide range of shows—The Today Show, CNN's Aaron Brown and Headline News, NPR's Fresh Air and Morning Edition, and others.