Everywhere, Publishing Angels

by Steven Zeitchik, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 11/12/2004

And they say teenagers don't buy books. The week's biggest bestseller is The Official Halo 2 Strategy Guide, a title being snapped up heavily by those elusive 12-18s. Random's Prima Games says it sold 270,000 copies of the guide to the video-game phenomenon that is Halo 2 . . . in one day. It's a feat that to our knowledge is bested only by Bill Clinton (400,000 copies) and latter-day Harry Potters.

The book hit stores Tuesday, also the day the Xbox adventure game released. Electronic Boutique, B&N-spinoff Gamestop and other stores were selling the book near the game, and the chains are said to have taken a strong position, which should help come the holidays, when Halo 2 is expected to be a big gift item.

Perhaps equally astonishing is that the book, a trade paperback, sold so many copies despite retailing for $17. Prima Games, one of the only pieces of the acquired company Random left completely intact, has printed 1.2 million copies of the title.

Of course, one-day sales can be a fuzzy yardstick, but the book's success proves, in a sort of kooky way, that when it comes to teenagers books aren't dead and subject matters more than medium. As to whether the title will appear on the New York Times how-to bestseller list, Prima hasn't received official word from the paper but is "not encouraged."