St. Martin's Hopes for Daschle Rush

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 11/19/2008 3:24:00 PM

St. Martin's could be the next publisher to owe thanks to the president-elect. Since the announcement yesterday that Tom Daschle has been named to Barack Obama's cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services, St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne is seeing renewed interest in Critical, its February 2008 book by the former Democratic Senate leader and has gone to press for another 10,000 copies.

The book, subtitled What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis, couldn't be more topical, said John Murphy, St. Martin's v-p, director of publicity, who told PW that the title "completely outlines [Daschle's] and, dare I say, the president-elect's, thoughts on our healthcare system." 

Thomas Dunne director of publicity Joseph Rinaldi confirmed that interview requests for the author have already started flooding in, as have large reorders from national accounts. According to Rinaldi, St. Martin's has "several thousand" copies of the book in stock from the original printing, which he estimated at "well over 20,000."