Bestsellers

Behind the Bestsellers
Daisy Maryles -- 10/16/00

All You Need Is... | Paperback Rules
About Face | Naked Fat Guy & Co.


All You Need Is...
The Beatles Anthology from Chronicle Books is clearly the big moneymaker of the week. The $60 coffee-table volume ranked #1 or #2 on most lists across the country, and is #1 on PW's hardcover nonfiction list. This is the book the fans have been waiting for. It's by the Beatles and features more than 1,300 images, many in print for the first time. Chronicle launched it with a hefty 800,000-copy printing and reports that bookseller support has been enormous. Some of the promotional efforts included excerpts in major magazines and an extensive feature in the New Yorker. Just about every major newspaper reviewed the book prominently and favorably. TV coverage included Today, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, The Edge and more. Radio promos are running nationwide throughout the holiday season. It's the first gift book hit of the season and Chronicle anticipates a long run.

Paperback RulesThere was a huge turnover this week on PW's mass market chart, with eight new books hitting the list. James Patterson's Pop G s the Weasel is #1 after just a few days on sale. A year ago, the book did the same on the hardcover charts. It enjoyed a 13-week run on the list, the first three in the top slot. First printing from Warner was nearly 1.9 million. In the #4 spot is a new Star Wars Jedi Order title from Del Rey; Agents of Chaos I, Hero's Trial has a 275,000-copy first printing. Bantam's Hiding in the Shadows by Kay Hooper is #8 and has 750,000 copies in print after two trips to press. And Janet Dailey's Calder Pride is #10; Harper Paperbacks reports 725,000 copies in print after three trips to press. The next three books on the list are all new, too. Linda Lael Miller takes the #11 slot with Courting Susannah; Pocket has 700,000 copies in print after two trips to press. Jove has 550,000 copies in print of Second Wind by Dick Francis, the #12 bestseller this week. Lucky 13 is The Least Likely Bride by Jane Feather from Bantam, with 600,000 copies in print after three trips to press. Rounding off the list at #15 is Soft Focus by Jayne Ann Krentz, launched by Jove with a 925,000-copy first printing.


About FaceIn his two previous books, The Art of Makeup and Making Faces, Kevyn Aucoin revolutionized and popularized the art of makeup design. (The latter title spent a total of 11 weeks on our hardcover chart.) Now, in his third book, Face Forward, the acclaimed celebrity makeup artist sets out to prove his theory that "makeup should be fun, not fascist." In this Little, Brown release (pub date: Oct. 4), Aucoin's portrait subjects range from Julia Roberts to Sharon Stone, from Martha Stewart to his mother. A 12-page excerpt from the book ran in the October In Style, which last month hosted a star-studded pub party. Oprah devoted a full hour to the new book on October 6, and Aucoin appeared on Today on both October 10 and 11. LB reports a 275,000-copy first printing (compared to 164,000 for Making Faces), and three subsequent trips to press have raised that figure to 425,000.


Naked Fat Guy & Co.That's Richard Hatch and his fellow islanders, of course--the 16 hardy folks who broke all records for summertime TV programming on CBS's Survivor. And as everybody who hasn't been vacationing on Mars knows, Hatch walked away with the $1 million grand prize, a victory that he's parlaying into personal appearances, commercial contracts, book deals (see "Hot Deals," Oct. 2) and more. Now TV Books has parlayed this blockbuster itself into a bestseller--Survivor: The Ultimate Game was published on September 21 and now has 180,000 copies in print. Author Mark Burnett, the show's executive producer, divulges "countless incidents, anecdotes, and behind the scenes stories." (What, no rat recipes?) And there's more to come: TV Books has struck a deal with CBS to publish the companion book to Survivor II (this one set in the Australian outback), which debuts in January. Stay tuned.

With reporting by Dick Donahue