Fiction's Winning Foursome

by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 1/17/2005

Four veteran bestselling authors land among the top 15 with their newest titles. Highest on the charts, #3, is Terry Goodkind's Chainfire, first in the Chainfire trilogy that will end the popular Sword of Truth series. Tor launched the book with a 250,000-copy initial printing and its first virtual tour. For that tour, Goodkind signed about 7,000 copies, which were distributed to booksellers nationwide for the January 4 laydown. The author signed almost all the 7,000 books in red ink; he did 100 in green ink. In 10 copies, Goodkind wrote out the Wizard's Ninth Rule and then numbered and signed the books (these were dispersed randomly among the 7,000).

Landing in the #11 slot is Linda Fairstein's Entombed, boasting 135,000 copies in print after two trips to press. Scribner went the whole nine yards by doing 60-second television ads for the author's seventh book. PW's new editor-in-chief, Sara Nelson, covered the campaign in one of her last Media City columns for the New York Post. She noted the rumor that Fairstein's agent Esther Newberg was looking to other publishers a few years ago, "in hopes of increasing sales." The TV campaign was a strong sign of Scribner's commitment to its bestselling author. Fairstein's latest mass market bestseller, The Kills, has 290,000 copies in print.

It's 20/20 for Barbara Taylor Bradford—her newest bestseller, Unexpected Blessings, is her 20th book and her 20th national bestseller. It is also the latest sequel to A Woman of Substance, her first bestseller. Total copies in print, says St. Martin's, is 240,000.

The Cat Who Went Bananas, at #14, is the 25th bestselling Cat Who... mystery from Lilian Jackson Braun. Putnam reports 147,000 copies in print.