It was going to be a big week for Warner Books and its top fall author, General Electric CEO Jack Welch. The one-day laydown for Jack: Straight from the Gut was scheduled for the date that will forever live in infamy--September 11. The house's first printing was 1.2 million, to be accompanied by a massive media and book tour. At the moment, all has been postponed until the end of the month, and Warner is hoping that it will be able to rebook major media appearances. While the chains did report that all book sales were beginning to reach levels of previous years for the weekend after the World Trade Center disaster, sales for several days right after the attacks were "dismal," according to retailers nationwide. That was certainly the case with Jack, which had sold less than 15,000 at the three national chains (Barnes & Noble, Borders and Waldenbooks) after about a week on the shelves. This bestseller pundit expects the weekly unit sales will increase over the next weeks and months. In his memoir, Welch covers the many controversial ways that he grew GE from a $13-billion company to one worth $500 billion. Considering that so much of the business sector is facing mega-challenges just keeping companies afloat, the CEO's words of wisdom and inspiration may resonate more than ever before.

Back in the mid-'80s, when the business outlook was more upbeat, one of the biggest business memoirs hit the charts in a major way, setting records that Welch's book was aiming to challenge. Bantam's Iaccoca: An Autobiography by former Chrysler CEO Lee Iaccoca was the #1 nonfiction bestseller in both 1984 (it was published in November of that year) and 1985, racking up hardcover sales of more than 2.5 million in two years and enjoying a 77-week tenure on PW's hardcover charts. Total hardcover and paperback sales now exceed seven million copies.

With reporting by Dick Donahue.