That's just what Tor did for the latest Terry Goodkind bestseller, Naked Empire, which lands in the #2 spot on PW's fiction hardcover list. The book was launched with a 250,000-copy first printing and a $250,000 marketing campaign; the author is doing a national 20-city, 11-state tour. To help build that momentum, Tor offered the first chapter to the chains and implemented a staggered marketing plan to introduce new fans to Goodkind. In April, Tor published the first book in Goodkind's The Sword of Truths series as a special $2.99 mass market that included a $3 rebate coupon for the new hardcover, Naked Empire. In June, there was a special mailing of postcards to Book Sense members and genre accounts, and miniposters and bookmarks with the book's on-sale date were included in the June Book Sense Big Box mailing. Tor also built a Web site for Naked Empire; it features press releases, backlist info, tour schedules and more.
For a July 22 signing at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, Calif., one woman drove all the way down from Los Angeles to get a copy signed for her husband in Iraq. When the store realized she had come so far and had such a long drive home, they let her move ahead in the line. A few waiting fans grumbled, but when the store explained the situation, everyone on the line burst into applause. Also, at the same signing, there was a young man who'd ducked out of his 21st birthday festivities to get his book signed by Goodkind.
