Sue Monk Kidd has been a fixture on the trade paperback charts for more than two years—113 weeks, to be exact. Penguin's on-sale date for The Secret Life of Bees was January 28, 2003, and it launched the book with a 400,000 printing. As of April 14, 2005, copies in print total 4,006,691 after 25 trips to press. Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, had a one-day laydown on April 5 and Viking's first printing was 400,000 copies; four reprints bring the total to 480,000. The publisher notes that crowds for her events have been huge, ranging from 950 at the National Cathedral in D.C. to about 200 at Warwick's in San Diego, Calif.