Wednesday Letters a Success for Mormon Imprint

by Jana Riess, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 10/3/2007

"Glenn Beck is as good for books as Oprah!" said Gail Halladay, director of marketing for Shadow Mountain, the Salt Lake City publisher which has seen its September book The Wednesday Letters zoom up national bestseller lists. On September 12, the day the novel released (a Wednesday, of course), author Jason Wright was a guest on Glenn Beck's syndicated radio show in the morning and his half-hour CNN television program that night. That had an immediate effect: the sophomore novel by the author of The Christmas Jars debuted at number 6 on the New York Times bestseller list and hit several other national hardcover fiction lists, including PW's. Beck invited Wright to appear on the show again last night (Oct. 2).

"The listener and viewer response was incredible," Halladay told RBL, noting that Wright gave out his cell number during the first on-air interview and has been flooded with calls from people touched by the novel's storyline, which revolves around a husband's weekly love letters to his wife. "People have written Jason about special letters they have received and kept from parents, spouses, sisters and friends. Some amazing stories have come out about the power that we find in letter-writing," Halladay said.

Demand for the book continues to snowball. Shadow Mountain publishing director Chris Schoebinger said the press has exhausted its initial print run of 50,000 copies and gone back to press for an additional 100,000. "Right now we're scrambling to get paper and get the books back in print and ready to distribute," he said.

The publisher also has been "inundated" with requests for rights, according to Schoebinger. Shadow Mountain had already reached a "gentleman's agreement" at BEA with Penguin Berkley for paperback rights, he said, but Berkley came back and "upped the ante" of its offer for a paperback edition, due next year. Terms were not disclosed.

The Wednesday Letters is Shadow Mountain's second title to hit the Times list; the other was the children's chapter book Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star a few months ago. Said Schoebinger, "The success of The Wednesday Letters has also created some increased national exposure for The Christmas Jars, which is being made into a movie for Christmas 2008. Shadow Mountain has found a market for good, clean, values-based literature."