Print Run Continues to Rise for ‘Hockey Mom’  

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 9/4/2008 10:59:00 AM

Interest in Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and the book about her, continues to grow. Epicenter Press, the Washington state publisher with the only book on the Alaska governor, has gone back to press with Lightning Source for another 11,000 copies of Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down, bringing the total number of copies done with the print-on-demand publisher up to 51,000. Epicenter publisher Kent Sturgis said a 25,000-copy offset print run is due to ship Monday, bringing the total number of copies in print to 76,000. The publisher may need to go back to press again soon, however, as orders are closing in on 100,000. Sturgis said Epicenter is waiting to getting a sense of sell-through before heading back to press. First books should be arriving in stores now.

To help handle demand for interviews with author Kaylene Johnson, Epicenter has hired publicist Andrea Burnett. Sturgis said Johnson has been doing interviews non-stop since news of Palin’s appointment broke. He expects interest in the book to remain strong at least through the vice presidential debate set for October 7. Originally released in the spring, Sturgis said the biography “holds help well.” He said Epicenter and Johnson had always planned to do an epilogue at some point. “I guess we’ll update it soon,” he said.