A Lucky Number
By Shannon Maughan, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 5/15/2008
There may not be exactly 13, but there are a good number of reasons why Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher’s debut YA novel (Penguin/Razorbill), has been racking up solid sales. In the story, a teenage girl commits suicide and leaves behind cassette tapes explaining the 13 reasons why she took her life. Published last October with a first printing of 18,000 copies, the book has been back to press nine times and has sold more than 100,000 copies.
“It’s a word-of-mouth hit like I’ve never seen before,” notes Ben Schrank, president and publisher of Razorbill. “Everyone who reads it says, ‘You’ve gotta read this book.’ ”
Razorbill put a lot of effort into getting the word out, too. “We immediately loved the book in-house,” says Schrank, support that was parlayed into robust marketing/publicity campaigns. “We did a top account galley mailing in May 2007 with a map highlighting locations from the book,” says Rhalee Hughes, director of publicity for Penguin Young Readers Group. “That started to get booksellers excited.” Finished book mailings targeted to booksellers who host book clubs and YA advisory groups at top libraries across the country followed. Penguin sales reps sported t-shirts emblazoned with “Ask me about Thirteen Reasons Why” at fall regional trade shows and offered the galley as a giveaway.
On the technology front, Penguin created a dedicated Web site for the book, www.thirteenreasonswhy.com, which includes audio clips and an interactive map. The title was also featured in the publisher’s teen e-newsletter.
Asher, who has proved a skilled promoter in his own right, hit the road for a number of appearances in his home state of California upon the book’s release and he is still on the move. The author will be signing at BEA and will appear on a panel at the Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row Festival in June.
Earlier this year, Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., hosted Asher for an event. Children’s department manager and children’s book buyer Kris Vreeland has been a great champion of the title. “When I first read the galley, about a year ago, I loved it,” she says. “At that time, I was just putting together a teenage reading group to read ARCs. I was really excited about the book and it was actually the first title that I gave them to read.”
To Vreeland’s delight, the response from the ARC group, which now consists of 16 girls, most of them 13 and 14 years old, was both overwhelmingly positive and insightful. “The book is challenging, but a really good discussion starter,” Vreeland notes. “I think the format—that the story unfolds on a series of tapes—is unique, as well.” Discussions with the girls further reinforced Vreeland’s impressions. “The topic is very timely and Asher does a good job of balancing all the viewpoints in the book,” she says. “It shows the effects of suicide on the people left behind and demonstrates the impact our actions—even if they seem trivial—have on others.”
One of Vreeland’s ARC group members so liked the book that she struck up an e-mail correspondence with Asher, and eventually invited him to one of their meetings. He attended and stayed for a couple of hours, discussing his book as well as some other titles with the girls. “They were thrilled,” says Vreeland, “and he enjoyed hearing their perspective.”
Vreeland notes that many of the girls’ parents have also read Thirteen Reasons Why and they aren’t the sole adult readership at Vroman’s. “The book has done very well at our store with adults as well as kids,” she says. “The ARC group girls all have their own copy, of course.” And that original galley? “It’s very nearly in tatters,” Vreeland says with a laugh.
Noting that strategic marketing efforts as well as organic publicity have been a boon, Schrank believes the book’s momentum is ultimately the result of an unusual perfect storm of circumstances. “It is poetic and beautifully written, and conceptually it is extremely strong,” he says. “The topic is perennially fascinating and the characters are deeply relatable. And we were very pleased that when the finished book came out, the look of the physical package perfectly matched the qualities of the book. That doesn’t always happen.”
A paperback edition of Thirteen Reasons Why is scheduled for October, but Schrank says that arriving at a first-printing figure quantity is still a long way off. “For the hardcover we would have been happy to sell 25,000–30,000, but I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the consistency we’ve seen month over month.” Schrank thinks they could have a potential classic on their hands, saying that some booksellers have compared it to Go Ask Alice, and “that could last forever.”
Thirteen Reason Why by Jay Asher. Penguin/Razorbill, $16.99, 978-1-59514-171-2
