Stockett’s Sleeper Success
We’ve been writing here since February about a classic word-of-mouth sleeper, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.
It’s now been crowned by the consumer media; the current issue of USA Today proclaims it “the hot book this summer.” After publication in February, it went on the May 28 USA Today list at #149 and has risen every week since. It is now at #31, making it the #7 fiction hardcover on the list. On the NYT Fiction list, it rose to #5 spot last week. We hear it continues in that spoton the upcoming list, after a total of 17 weeks in the top 15.
That’s no news to independent booksellers; it’s been #1 on the Indie Fiction Best Seller list for three weeks and in the top five for thirteen weeks.
Stockett appeared at the ALTAFF Gala Author Tea during ALA and signed copies of her book at the Penguin booth.
As USA Today notes, this may be just the beginning; the trade paperback is coming in February and is likely to follow other Penguin successes in that format, such as Eat, Pray, Love, The Kite Runner and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
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Also on audio:
- Audio CD: $39.95, Unabridged
- Publisher: Penguin Audio; (February 10, 2009)
- ISBN-10: 0143144189
- ISBN-13: 978-0143144182
Large Type:
- Hardcover: $32.95; 721 pages
- Publisher: Thorndike Press (May 2009)
- ISBN-10: 1410415538
- ISBN-13: 978-1410415530