Da Vinci Code Cracks Back

by Steven Zeitchik, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 5/19/2004

As other books continue to ride piggyback on The Da Vinci Code--or at least try to--Doubleday is doing a little double, er, supplemental licensing of its own. The publisher has what it's calling a special illustrated edition set for October. Such editions, rare to begin with, are of course even less common absent a movie tie-in. (Random did one last year for Seabiscuit, but that was when the novel hit the screen.)

This book contains the entire text of the original novel alongside reprints of paintings like The Last Supper. It's being edited by DVC editor Jason Kaufman.

Asked if there was a connection between this title and the glut of non-Doubleday books using DVC marketing, Doubleday spokesperson Suzanne Herz acknowledged the saturation--"There's been so much capitalizing on The Da Vinci Code," she said--but added that this book has been "in the works for a year" and that "we think [the illlustrated book] will be another service to the people who read The Da Vinci Code."

Not one to be left out of the party, B&N's publishing program has its own entry in the Cracking genre. It's called Cracking the Da Vinci Code, and will presumably be promoted above some of the other titles easily distinguishable from it, such as Decoding Da Vinci and Cracking Da Vinci's Code.