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Posted on 10/02/2002 8:51:38 AM PDT by GeneD
Peter Jennings' "In Search of America" is a book in search of readers.
Despite heavy promotion by the publisher, a weeklong tie-in series on ABC and big pushes by the ABC anchorman and coauthor Todd Brewster, the coffee-table book looks like the first high-profile stumble of the fall publishing season.
After a month in stores and stiff competition from Sept. 11 books, "In Search of America" has yet to make The New York Times best-seller list and failed to place last week among USA Today's top 150 sellers.
As a result, publisher Hyperion is offering to share with retailers a 40% markdown of the book's $50 list price in hopes of spurring sales at $29.95.
Such a strategy usually means a publisher wants to head off a massive return of unsold copies.
Hyperion, which confidently printed 725,000 copies, and ABC are both part of Disney.
"The book was published Sept. 3 to time it with the series that began that night on ABC," Hyperion president Robert Miller recalled yesterday.
"We faced, because of that date, an incredible amount of competition from 9/11 books, many of them illustrated and priced in the $30-$35 range, so it was difficult to emerge from that pack," Miller said.
Hyperion devised the markdown plan because, Miller added, "We didn't want price to keep anyone from discovering this book among all the others."
Unlike Jennings' earlier mega-seller, "The Century," a retrospective of the 20th century that also served as a reference, the new book is more thematic. It explores how contemporary America has lived up to the ideals of the founding fathers.
Books about 9/11, including "The Cell," coauthored by Jennings' ABC colleague John Miller, will still fill eight of 15 slots on The Times nonfiction best-seller list this Sunday. Other 9/11 titles rank below the top 15, along with "In Search of America," which will place 27th Sunday, based on sales in the week ending Sept. 21.
Miller, the Hyperion president, expressed confidence sales will grow through the holiday gift-buying season as Jennings continues to draw hundreds of people to each author appearance.
"ABC World News Tonight" spokeswoman Cathie Levine said Jennings, who had been occupied with the Sept. 11 anniversary, will visit 17 cities through early December and do a string of book-related interviews.
BTW, Jennings was on Sean Hannity's radio show yesterday hyping his book. Don't know why Sean would allow that except that Sean is a really nice guy.
I heard part of it. From what little I heard, Sean was fairly soft on 'em?
5¢ a day will fund the filth at Salon. What will you donate to FreeRepublic?
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings was born July 29, 1938 in Toronto, Canada.
(Nobody should have 5 names!)
Mr. Jennings dropped out of preparatory school around age 16.
More amusing was the message board thread about Mr. Jennings that I came across on a site called FreeRepublic.com. Just a look at the keywords for the thread is enough give you a good idea of the content: 'Peter Jennings, ABC News, Pro-Castro, Pro-Jesse Jackson, Pro-Sandinistas, Pro-Communists.'
The discussion starts off in a very professional, editorial manner ...it later digresses to nothing more intelligent than this:
"Why doesn't this perverted Communist, Peter Jennings, go back to Canada where he came from, and leave us freedom loving American people alone?" and
"Good thing he's a pretty boy. I will buy him a ticket to Cuba provided he NEVER comes back. Castro would probably have a job waiting for him."
"We love Peter Jennings!" Say Mohammad Mohammad and his brother Mohammad. Pictured standing in front of the money they have saved. Which is about $3.00 in US dollars
"We nearly have enough for his new book, In Search of America!" Just a few more pounds of Afgan money and we should be able to buy his book. Which should be down to about $4.95 soon.
When asked why they wanted the book so badly the "Mohammads" said: "The mouth. Very pretty mouth Peter has! And we hear there is a photo of Peter bending over! Yummy!"
Is it in the "Fiction" or "Non-Fiction" section?
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