Building a Buzz for 'Elephants'

By Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 4/24/2006

A vigorous marketing campaign aimed at independent booksellers is paying off for Algonquin, whose forthcoming novel Water for Elephants has sparked pre-pub buzz that some are comparing to the anticipation generated by Cold Mountain and The Lovely Bones.

The novel, which Algonquin is publishing June 2, is expected to be the #1 Book Sense pick for June. The publisher, responding to bookseller enthusiasm for the title, has expanded a planned five-city tour to 30 cities. While Algonquin marketing director Craig Popelars would not say how many copies had been ordered so far, the publisher has seen enough interest to boost the book's print run from 15,000 to 50,000 copies.

Popelars began reaching out to independents last fall, sending galleys of the book—a love story set in a Depression-era traveling circus—to about 30 booksellers known for their handselling talents. Just after Christmas, he sent galleys to the nearly 400 independent booksellers signed up for the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute held at the end of January. Algonquin, the only publisher to send galleys out before the institute, grabbed the buzz book of the event.

Margie Scott Tucker, co-owner of the northern California-based, 10-store Books Inc. mini-chain, heard Popelars's Elephants pitch at the institute. "I watched people around the room and you just saw a dozen heads bob," she said. Back home, Tucker started passing around galleys to the staff—"Everybody loves it," she said.

While the chains are also getting behind the novel—Borders picked Elephants for its Original Voices Program and the book will be part of Barnes & Noble's Great Summer Reads Program—Algonquin credits independent booksellers for building the initial anticipation. One of those booksellers described the book this way: "It's not great literature. It's just a really good read."