O IS FOR OUTSTANDING

Very few authors of a long-running mystery series enjoy the kind of rave reviews and stellar sales that Sue Grafton is garnering for "O" is for Outlaw, her 15th Kinsey Millhone mystery. A PW starred review called it "one of the very best entries in a long-lived and much-loved series," and the book lands in the #1 spot in its first week of sales, with a 525,000-copy first printing. Holt noted that at Grafton's tour kickoff on October 12 at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Phoenix, the author autographed nearly 2000 books in less than six hours. Her 18-city tour, which includes bookstore stops and a ton of local print and broadcast opportunities, goes through early December. She is also doing online interviews for various e-commerce sites, including some that will be interactive.

THIS NOVEL JUST SINGS

Knopf's enthusiasm for Kent Haruf's Plainsong began last spring with the manuscript being passed around in-house; for a while, it was the most photocopied manuscript on Knopf's fall list. Readers' editions were printed and distributed at BEA, and in no time, booksellers, too, were singing its praises -- in fact, the novel was on the debut BookSense list of recommended titles. The publisher collected some of the glowing comments and sent them out on postcards to customers, reviewers and industry big mouths to begin the buzz. PW's starred review in the August 2 issue used phrases like "Hemingwayesque prose." Also, front-page reviews across the country were equally glowing, and the Wall Street Journal mentioned the book in an article about serious "sleepers" of the season. Plainsong was launched with a 40,000-copy first printing and even before official pub date, it was chosen as a National Book Award fiction finalist. And now Plainsong has made the national charts, landing this week in the #15 spot on PW's list. According to Knopf, the weekly sales for Plainsong are slightly ahead of an earlier sleeper success that came out about this time two years ago: Memoirs of a Geisha. Knopf has just gone back to press for a fifth printing of 25,000 copies, bringing the total to 123,500. The author is in the midst of a 12-city tour.

A TRIUMPHANT FINALE

Back in fall 1998, Dave Pelzer went on Montel Williams for a full hour to talk about his two books, A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy; the result was two trade paper bestsellers for Health Communications. Pelzer discussed his life -- often described as the one of the most severe child-abuse cases in California history -- and his remarkable courage was evident. He was been honored in 1994 as one of the outstanding young persons of the world and is now a motivational speaker. Dutton has published the conclusion of his inspirational story in hardcover -- A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness and, naturally, the best place to launch it was The Montel Williams show on October 12, pub day. The book is already high on the lists at the chains and independents, and has 244,000 copies in print. In addition to major national media, Pelzer is doing a 15-city tour.

A STELLAR DEBUT FOR DUNE PREQUEL

According to Bantam, Dune (published 35 years ago) and its five sequels are "the undisputed heavyweight champions of science fiction literature"; there are more than 17 million copies of Frank Herbert's books in print. Now the first book in a trilogy of prequels by Brian Herbert (Frank's son) and bestselling SF scribe Kevin J. Anderson has hit the charts. The publisher reports that Dune: House Atreides has 135,000 copies after three trips to press. Bantam began building excitement back in May when it ran movie-screen teaser announcements about the book before another much-anticipated SF prequel, Star Wars, Episode One: The Phantom Menace. The book was launched in Herbert's hometown, Seattle, with a book party at the University Bookstore, featuring a Dune costume contest. Excellent reviews, including a starred one in PW, are boosting sales.