About two years ago, Kiz Reeves received a call at her day job. A clerk at her Greenwich Village bookstore, Partners & Crime, was puzzling over a listing in Pantheon's catalogue for a first novel published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback, and needed some help determining how many copies of the book, if any, the store should buy. "The hardcover is $40 and it sounds really interesting but we may not want many,"' her clerk said judiciously. "I paused for a second," Reeves recalled, "and told her immediately--"'I want a big number.'"

That hunch paid off. Partners & Crime sold more than 60 hardcover copies of that book, Mark Z. Danielewski's debut novel, House of Leaves, a postmodern horror story about a filmmaker whose home evolves into a Borges-like haunted house. It's a book that's distinguished as much by its elaborate interior design--200 pages of lavishly embellished appendices, footnotes that run vertically, horizontally and even backward in half a dozen fonts and voices, and the word "house" in blue ink--as it is by its artful plot.

As it turned out, Reeves was not the only one with a hunch about this book. The entire 2,000-copy hardcover print run sold out prior to the book's March 2000 pub date, primarily to book dealers, collectors and savvy bookstore owners who speculated that the precious few hardcovers would be very much sought after. Their instincts were good: the experimental novel is currently fetching $250 on Advanced Book Exchange and eBay.

Though Pantheon knew the largest part of the market would buy the paperback, the house opted to publish the simultaneous hardcover to show confidence in the book and to make sure that key reviewers took it seriously, according to publicity director Sophie Cottrell. There was an added bonus to this approach. At Danielewski's signing at Partners & Crime, "they had stacks and stacks [of the hardcover] and he signed them with four different color pens. People just loved it. You could see that part of our marketing plan working," Cottrell said.

With 140,000 copies of the paperback edition in print, Pantheon recently issued 2,500 copies of a new "red" edition of the hardcover, 18 months after the original publication. This unusual move was prompted by inquiries from readers who had noticed the author's coy reference to fictitious versions of the book (including ones in Braille and with colored plates). What's different about the new edition? "Only the trained House of Leaves lover would notice," said Cottrell, "but that's the point as well." As with the first edition, half of the print run has been signed by Danielewski.

Because of its unusual premise and packaging, it would be difficult to duplicate Pantheon's campaign for House of Leaves (which was serialized online at iUniverse.com, and the author recorded a song based on the book with his sister, the rock singer Poe). However, one part of the campaign holds interesting possibilities, and that's the element of collectibility. As author tours have become more commonplace, so have signed books. Stores have found they can entice customers with signed first editions that may eventually become collectible.

In 1992, Square Books in Oxford, Miss., instituted a program called the First Edition Club. "Readers adore the club," said store manager Lyn Roberts. "It's sort of like BOMC. They agree to purchase a signed first edition once a month. We choose something we think is a good book but that's collectible as well. Many of our choices--Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, for example--have turned out to be collectible." Square Books has more than 200 subscribers in its club, only about half of whom are in the Mississippi area.

Partners & Crime has a similar program called Partner's Picks, which promotes four debut mysteries. The store publicizes the books in its catalogue, which goes out to more than 800 readers, and also on its Web site, www.crimepays.com. Recent titles include C.J. Box's Open Season (Putnam, July), a debut mystery set in Wyoming, with blurbs from Tony Hillerman, Margaret Maron and Lee Child. Though the book's package is far more pedestrian than Danielewski's, it has other attractive qualities. Its first printing was bumped up from 10,000 to 12,5000 copies, based on good early reviews and bookseller enthusiasm, and it has gone back to press twice, bringing the total in print to 16,500 copies. If Warner Brothers makes good on its option (Bruce Willis and Arnold Rifkin's Cheyenne Enterprises are attached to produce), Box's first edition will likely to go up in value.

Stocking signed and rare titles and selling them through the Internet has helped the store increase profits. Since Partners went online with its first editions, that portion of the business has accounted for 8%—11% of sales. The store frequently receives orders from as far afield as New Zealand and Sweden. Reeves sees signed books as an added value to customers: "I think it's another way to make a book feel special, and readers like that."

Although collectors of mysteries and modern first editions are a subset of the general reading public, Ken Lopez, a rare bookseller in Hadley, Mass., believes that reading and collecting go hand in hand. "People who have become book collectors at the highest level started with the thrill of having that first signed book--something the author once held in his or her hand."

Because many new books have large print runs, it takes time for them to gain value. But some booksellers are willing to wait. Like Square Books, Partners & Crime often holds back copies signed at readings to age them like fine wine. Reeves calls this practice "cooking." She'll buy anywhere from two to 80 copies of a single title and put only a few on the selling floor.

Although some publishers expressed concern that authors do not ultimately share in the proceeds from well-"cooked" first editions, they said they tend to turn a blind eye on booksellers who go out of their way to support an author who's just getting off the ground. "We recognize there's a trade-off there," said one executive who asked not to be identified. "But we try to avoid sending authors to signings at stores who are just going to sit on the copies."

While some authors are chagrined about what Lopez calls "the mercenary side" of the business, younger ones, who have the most to gain from the word-of-mouth generated by collector interest, appreciate the boost it gives them. Stewart O'Nan, who became collectible when he was chosen as one of Granta magazine's 20 best writers under 40, is one of them. "Collectors help publicize my work, putting my name in front of serious book people catalogue by catalogue. It's a form of support I never thought I'd have."

Elizabeth McCracken, who was also chosen for Granta's list and is a mainstay in some dealers' catalogues, feels the same way. "I remember that delightful moment when a book dealer first told me that I'd been covered in a collecting newsletter. It was really early on in the publication of The Giant's House, and it meant something to me."

As it turns out, McCracken may wind up sharing in the value of her first book as a collector's item. She bought up the leftover hardcovers at "about $1.50 a piece. Mostly I just wanted to avoid those sad remainder piles in dollar stores, or pulping. I had no idea they'd increase in value." She admitted she's given away many copies. "Early on, I also sold a few to dealers, but now I'm sitting tight. There just weren't that many copies printed," she said.

Some authors and publishers tire of dealers who appear at their signings with stacks of first editions they plan to resell at a handsome profit. Rick Moody, whose first book, Garden State, was published in a small print run of 3,000 copies by the Pushcart Press, ran into so many dealers asking for signatures that he now refuses to sign the book. "People would corner him at readings with multiple copies," said Bill Henderson, Pushcart's publisher.

Still, Henderson said, he still has 200 or 300 copies of the first edition left. "We have plenty of signed editions. Now I sell them just to collectors who hear about them. I think they are running $150—$200, though I haven't sold one in many months. I expect when his new book comes out, there will be another flurry."

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