Talk of the Trade

by Charlotte Abbott and Diane Roback -- Publishers Weekly, 10/3/2005

It's been a while since booksellers have gotten really excited about a legal thriller. But the 7,300 galleys Doubleday sent out of Mark Gimenez's The Color of Law (Oct. 18) seem to have done the trick. The morality tale, which has a fresh twist on To Kill a Mockingbird, has gone to press twice before pub for 121,000 copies.

Louis Sachar's Holes won the Newbery Medal, sold more than five million copies, and the movie grossed $67 million. Now Sachar has written a sequel, called Small Steps, featuring two of the characters from Holes. Delacorte has big plans for it: a 500,000-copy first printing and a January 10 laydown.

Public relations executive Robert Dilenschneider's ninth book, A Time for Heroes, gives Orrin Hatch, Steve Forbes and a trove of other notables a chance to wax nostalgic on their personal heroes. Indie press Phoenix Books expects its first hit with an initial print run of 10,000. Publishing with independents runs in the family: PW gave a starred review to the 2003 poetry collection, Between Two Junes Is a Forest by Robert's son, Geoffrey Dilenschneider, noting his "huge heart and an uncommon gift for expressing it."

Last week Candlewick sent out advance copies of Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo's next novel, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, packaged in special cardboard mini-trunks. The house plans a February 14 laydown, and is printing 300,000 copies.