|
Power of the Press
Friday, October 14, 2005
I've worked in daily newspapers, as a reporter and columnist, for the past quarter century. You'd think I would have some idea about the power of the press. I thought I did, but not until yesterday did I fully grasp the magnitude of the forces at play. Or maybe it's not the power of the press so much that I understimated as the power of The New York Times.
On Wednesday night, I checked the ranking on Amazon for Marley & Me, and it sat about where it had been sitting for weeks at #7,358. The high number didn't surprise me considering the book does not come out until Oct. 18, and the only sales trickling in were advanced orders from the small numbers of people who had heard about the book through the grapevine. Then on Thursday morning, The New York Times published a positive review of my book. (Read it at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/13/books/13masl.html) By 10 a.m. my ranking was hovering around 1,500, fueled by a surge in pre-orders coming in. I found that amazing: I had jumped up 6,000 places in the course of a few hours. As the day went on, the numbers kept dropping (or rising, however you like to look at it): 900, 750, 500, 275...and by mid-afternoon my not-yet-published book had cracked Amazon's Top 100 List, based on the volume of books sold. It kept climbing the list through the night, finally hitting #43 before settling into the mid-50s, where it remains as of this writing.
It was the same story at barnesandnoble.com, where pre-orders there also drove it onto the B&N Top 100 list. At one point, Marley & Me was #28 on the B&N list, rubbing shoulders with the likes of The Historian and The Tender Bar.
There is only one reason for this seismic change: The Janet Maslin review on an inside page in The Times. Good God, what happens when she writes on the section front? Now I understand how one bad theater review in The Times can shut in one night a Broadway play that had been months in the making.
I realize these rankings are a bit of a temporary blip in response to the review, and they no doubt will creep back up again between now and next Tuesday's release. But, boy, it's sure an exciting rollercoaster ride while it's happening.
I was a total wreck all day, clicking the refresh button on Amazon and B&N every15 minutes. My coworkers and colleagues were calling and stopping in my office. My e-mail was going crazy. It's a minor miracle I was able to write a column for my paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
All I can say is bless you, Janet Maslin, and thank you for getting my book and capturing its essence in 875 words. This first-time author can't imagine a greater gift.
posted by John Grogan at 11:32 PM
 
2 Comments:
<< Home
Previous Posts
|
|
|
You certainly made my day. As a former lab owner I found myself smiling and laughting at the pictures and your description of Marley. We have been struggling over the thought of having another lab but have worried that a new dog could never replace our former pet who must be somehow related to Marley. I'm going to get the book for an upcoming trip to Florida.
as a former Delray bureau reporter for the Palm Beach Post (1984-86), I find it heartening to see another Post-alum making it big. The editors always used to lambaste pet and animal stories as un-newsworthy but most readers liked them. And you can't sniff at the book income, either, after enduring Cox wages.