Buffett in Big Blow Out for New Novel

by Raya Kuzyk, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 12/2/2004

A week from today, on December 8, Jimmy Buffett will read excerpts from his new novel, A Salty Piece of Land (published yesterday), participate in an audience Q&A and perform with his Beach new Band at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in New Orleans in an event to be simulcast live in 53 Regal Entertainment Group theaters spanning 29 states.

Though the extravaganza is the brainchild of Regal and Buffett's HK Management team, his publisher, Little, Brown, has had a hand as well, enlisting 34 neighboring independent bookstores to sell copies of the $27.95 hardcover, already in its second printing, at their closest venue. And the potential for sales isn't piddling: the 34 theatres at which the booksellers will be appearing can hold as many as 28,913 people.

Heather Fain, associate director of publicity at Little, Brown, said the house is sending 100 copies of the event's promotional poster to each store as a customer buying incentive. "We're so glad these stores are willing to gamble with us a little bit and try something different," she said.

As one of the top concert draws in the country (some one million fans attend his performances each year), Buffett also boasts three books on the New York Times bestseller list. Buffett is only the sixth author in the history of that list to have reached No. 1 on both the fiction and nonfiction lists, putting him in the company of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Irving Wallace and Dr. Seuss.

See the News section of Monday's Publishers Weekly for more on how independent booksellers are planning to corner the Parrothead market at theaters across the nation.