How 'Capote' the Movie Is Affecting Capote the Book(s)
by Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 10/17/2005
While Hollywood films have provided a boost to sales of movie tie-ins, few do more than spike sales for their print source material. Not so with Capote, the new Sony Pictures Classics biopic about the flamboyant author. The film, which opened in New York and Los Angeles on September 30 and is slowly rolling out to other markets until it opens wide on November 18, is based on Gerald Clarke's biography, Capote: A Life, but focuses on the writing of In Cold Blood. The film, which is unusual for the attention it pays to the author's craft, is technically based on one book but about the writing of another and has reinvigorated interest in Capote at large, particularly his nonfiction masterpiece.
The major tie-in for the book is Clarke's, which features the black and white image from the movie's poster of star Philip Seymour Hoffman (as the titular author) standing against the backdrop of a tiny, nondescript Midwestern town (presumably that of Holcomb, Kans., of In Cold Blood). Thus far, Carroll & Graf, which acquired the paperback rights to Capote: A Life in 2001, has done a 30,000-copy print run for the tie-in edition. According to editor-in-chief Philip Turner, sales are increasing by the week. Clarke's promotion for the movie—he did an interview with USA Today, a commentary on NPR's All Things Considered and is scheduled for an appearance on CBS's morning show—is also helping to increase sales.
Vintage is seeing an even bigger boon for its edition of In Cold Blood. The imprint has gone back to press with a version that features the existing book jacket along with a rectangular sticker bearing the art from the movie poster. Thus far Vintage has done a print run of 130,000 copies for its stickered update. Publicity manager Sloane Crosley said sales for the book have tripled at Vintage's three major accounts (B&N, Amazon and Borders).
Vintage, which released the paperbacks of Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote (edited by Gerald Clarke) and The Complete Stories of Truman Capote last month, is clearly hoping the movie will give legs to a number of books by and about the author. As Crosley points out, the movie may even point viewers more directly to these seemingly tangential titles: "There are lines taken directly from The Letters that appear in the film. It's sort of the actual definition of a movie tie-in."
