Disgraced Administrator Has a Hot Book
By Michael Coffey -- Publishers Weekly, 4/27/2007 2:34:00 PM
When Marilee Jones resigned from her position as Dean of Admissions at MIT last week, admitting to having falsified her resume 28 years ago, it ended a distinguished career in higher education. However, it seemed to have a salutary effect on her book, Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond, co-authored with Kenneth R. Ginsburg. The paperback title, published last September, has been climbing the Amazon charts since Jones’s resignation on April 26. It is currently in the top 300, fueled no doubt by curiosity, but perhaps helped by press coverage that describes Jones as a “guru” for the anxious parent of college-bound teens.
The book’s publisher is the American Academy of Pediatrics, the medical society for America’s pediatricians, based in Elk Grove, Ill. AAP has an extensive publications program, with over 400 titles in print, and is best-known as a scientific, technical and medical publisher. But the AAP is no stranger to trade publishing. Maureen DeRosa, AAP director of department of marketing and publications, said “We do have a trade list, with 14 titles, which are distributed by IPG. Less Stress has been one of our bestselling titles; we did a first printing of 20,000 and have sold 13,700 to date.” And counting. “We are monitoring inventory, and may very well go back to press.” AAP has also entered copublishing arrangements with Bantam in New York. Their Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, said DeRosa, sells 250,000 copies a year.
Dr. Errol Alden, executive director of AAP, said that the society “continues to stand behind Less, Stress, More Success. The information remains valuable and will remain available.”
Elizabeth Malzahn, publicity manage at IPG, said that Less Stress has been selling steadily since publication and that sell-through numbers are strong. “Jones’s resignation hasn’t hurt the book yet,” she said. “It’s a good title with very good advice. Readers weren’t buying the book because Jones is a household name—it was just good guidance and value.” Malzahn said that if demand sinks in the wake of the resignation," then we’ll expect returns.” But for a book that has received glowing reviews from readers on Amazon, that may not happen. AAP says that, if they need to reprint, they will just alter the biographical copy for Jones to reflect her departure from MIT.
