Print run upped for Clarke book

[villager]

item from today's Publishers Weekly e-newsletter...

Enemies Makes Friends of 9/11 Families

Reporters and producers aren't the only ones lighting up the phone lines at Free Press this week. In addition to dealing with a level of media attention as fevered as that attracted by a bared breast, the publisher of Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies has also been busy since the book hit the market Monday keeping booksellers stocked with the title, making deals for second serial rights and foreign publishing rights and taking calls from family members of 9/11 victims.

Free Press, which decided on an initial print run of 300,000 copies, is upping the number to 500,000. "All of them will be in stores by next Wednesday at the latest," said publisher Martha Levin. The in-print figure is likely to keep climbing if sales at the bricks-and-mortar stores turn out to be anything like those at Amazon.com and BN.com, where the book knocked The Da Vinci Code out of the top spot on the bestseller lists.

Readers not ready to commit to the whole book can get a taste before they buy, thanks to second serial rights deals Free Press has signed this week with the New York Times Syndicate, the Austin American-Statesman, the San Jose Mercury News and the London Sunday Times. Free Press has also sold rights deals for publication in Holland, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia. The price of publishing the book in Spanish is rising by the hour, as Free Press fields bids in an auction Levin expects to conclude by as early as tomorrow.

S&S U.K. is distributing the book in its market. Beyond that, S&S avoided pursuing foreign rights deals before the book's release in order to protect the embargo. "We spent weeks trying to figure out how to keep the book confidential and show it to everyone, and we decided we couldn't do it," Levin said.

Not all of the reaction to the book can be measured in Amazon rankings and escalating bids for foreign language rights. Family members of 9/11 victims lauded Clarke after he apologized to them during his commission testimony yesterday, saying, "Your government failed you. And I failed you." Apparently, their appreciation extends to Clarke's publisher. Levin said Free Press "had three calls today from victims' family members thanking us for publishing the book."--Karen Holt

www.publishersweekly.com