Harper Pushes Mystery Book

by Rachel Deahl with Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 8/1/2006

HarperCollins reps have been selling a new, secret September title for a little more than a week without disclosing its title or author to accounts. Speaking about the mysterious work, which is coming out from Morrow, publicist Debbie Stier would only confirm that the imprint does indeed have "an embargoed book that reps are selling without a title or author." While Stier quashed a rumor that the work is a White House expose from a former member of the Bush administration, she refused to offer any details about it. In a note to booksellers, Morrow said the book will have a September 12 laydown. PW has also learned that the imprint is championing the book as "a shattering, provocative and mesmerizing true story" which "will receive major national media attention" in both the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, one bookseller told PW that the mysterious work, dubbed Title to be Revealed, is a biography and is going to press for 300,000 copies.

So how does the bookselling community feel about betting on something they know so little about? Vivien Jennings at Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Ks., said the approach got her attention, but that doesn't mean she'll be placing a huge order. One thing that's a red flag for Jennings is the promise of heavy media attention since it's something she says can be a blessing or a curse. Citing books like Ron Suskind's June release, The One Percent Doctrine—which she thinks has not sold as well as the author's previous book, 2004's The Price of Loyalty, because of early media coverage releasing key facts revealed in it—Jennings said "we have been repeatedly burned on supposedly mediagenic leaking books where they let too much air out of the balloon."

Doug Dutton, owner of Dutton's Brentwod Books in Los Angeles, said he too was skeptical of the gravity of Morrow's book. While he ordered 20 copies of Title to be Revealed for each of his three locations, Dutton added that, with embargoed books, he's often "hoping for something of real substance, and am usually disappointed."

Tosh Berman, a bookseller at Book Soup in West Hollywood, Calif., Nonethelesshadn't heard of the book until he was contacted by PW. Nonetheless he said that, with so little information provided on the book, he thinks the approach "could backfire." At Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., head book buyer Marie du Vaure said she bought 30 copies of Title to be Revealed. Calling the purchase "a total shot in the dark" du Vaure nonetheless said she had to have the book and, because of the publicity effort, "couldn't be caught without it." More optimistic about embargoed titles than the other booksellers, du Vaure said such books usually do fairly well at her store. "It's irritating, but ultimately we’ve always sold the embargoed titles and have never been stuck with a lot of books left over."