Welch's 'Winning'

by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 4/18/2005

While everyone can tell you where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was attacked, Jack Welch can tell you where he wasn't. September 11 was his laydown date for Jack: Straight from the Gut, and Warner had planned to launch the book that morning with a press conference. Warner had placed a heavy bet on the book, reportedly paying more than $7.1 million and starting out with a 1.2 million printing. Sales for that book and all others that fall were soft; opening week sales for Jack at the three national chains—Barnes & Noble, Borders and Waldenbooks—totaled fewer than 15,000 copies. Now, Welch's second book, Winning, written with his wife, Suzy, is having a better opening week. At the same three chains, week-one sales were close to 19,000. The New York Post reported that one of the people waiting in line at Barnes & Noble's Rockefeller Center store was Warner Books CEO Larry Kirshbaum, who bought three copies to be signed by Welch. HC's first printing was 475,000 and four additional trips to press bring that figure to 575,000. Welch has done lots of major media, starting with the cover of Newsweek and 60 Minutes, as well as two Today Show appearances (one by Jack, one by his wife/coauthor). Jack Welch's tour will include appearances at top business schools around the country.