1st Scores a Knockout
by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 3/19/2001
In 1976, Little, Brown published the first novel by a 27-year-old writer named James Patterson after it had been turned down by some two dozen publishers. The Thomas Berryman Number went on to win the Edgar Award for best first mystery, and things have been perking along quite nicely for Mr. Patterson ever since. In their hardcover and mass market incarnations, his last six novels have spent a grand total of 132 weeks on our charts, and three of them landed the top spot in their first week out. And now he's done it again, as 1st to Die (first printing: 850,000) not only tops our fiction list, but unseats John Grisham in the process. (Putnam tried with Amy Tan's latest, The Bonesetter's Daughter, but that novel made it to just the second position.) On the book's national laydown date (March 5), Patterson kicked off LB's publicity blitz with a Today appearance, a 15-city TV satellite tour and an ABC Radio affiliate tour. Bookstore appearances followed in five Western cities, with a second round of signings—in the Midwest—set for next month. And the excitement's not over then: a four-hour NBC miniseries adaptation of 1st to Die is scheduled to air in November.
