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A 'Titanic' Book Sweep
Daisy Maryles -- 3/23/98
So, will the highest-grossing movie of all time, Titanic, sweep the Oscars on March 23rd and break the record of 11, held since 1959 by Ben Hur? One thing we know for certain is that the film has set a record for the number of books it and one of its stars -- yes, we are talking about Leonard DiCaprio -- has inspired. And it is a record that could go unchallenged. A quick count of the current USA Today top 150 shows that there are 18 such books listed. There are seven bestsellers on PW's weekly charts (not counting the Leonardo books that appear on our monthly Children's Nonfiction bestseller list). New in the #11 spot on our hardcover list is Time-Life's Titanic: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner by Susan Wels, published this past November with a 65,000-copy first printing; after seven trips to press, there are 250,000 copies in print. A fourth Titanic title lands on the trade paper list: The Discovery of the Titanic by Robert D. Ballard and Rick Archbold, from Warner/Madison. The book was originally published in 1987 in hardcover (282,000 copies in print), but the Madison paper edition, released in January, will reach 250,000 copies in print by April, after seven printings. Warner has also reprinted 60,000 copies of the hardcover edition. And more books are still to come, including, in May, what is being billed as the only full-length narrative documenting the movie, from Newmarket Press, Titanic and the Making of James Cameron: The Inside Story of the Three-Year Adventure That Rewrote Motion Picture History by entertainment journalist Paula Parisi. A combined printing of 150,000 is planned for the dual cloth/paper editions. And Stackpole is anticipating its first bestseller since its founding in 1927 with "Unsinkable": The Full Story of RMS Titanic by Daniel Allen Butler, which is being published April 1, right before the 85th anniversary of the incident. There are 50,000 copies in print and it has already made the UPI bestseller list, based on retail orders to Ingram. The book will be getting a lot of electonic promotion so check out www.stackpolebooks.com/unsinkable.htm.

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