Are You Kidding Me?

This post is from Early Word (my comments to follow):

More LORD OF MISRULE On the Way

The good news: you published the winner of the National Book Award in fiction.

The bad news: you only printed 8,000 copies

Publisher Bruce McPherson tells the Wall Street Journal that another printing of Jaimy Gordon’sLord of Misrule should be available by Dec. 3.

So far, however, library demand is not going through the roof. At four large library systems we checked, the number of holds for this year’s Booker winner, The Finkler Question, is seven times those for Lord of Misrule.

We’re willing to bet that this is the first National Book Award winner to be reviewed by The Daily Racing Form.

Congrats to Gordon’s home town public library, Kalamazoo P.L. They nabbed her for a program on Dec. 3rd.

Okay, now my comments.  This is outrageous.  Gordon's novel has been nominated for the NBA for over a month now.  Why did they not plan for more than 8,000 copies?  Simply the nomination makes it order worthy for most public library collections.  8,000 does not cover that and any other interest that the nomination brings.  Also, the nomination meant it would have been reviewed in the major newspapers, win or lose. This adds up to more copies being purchased too.

Seriously, this is basic business planning.  McPherson really screwed this up in my opinion.  This will hurt their chances to get more hot authors too.  I have no idea if the book is as good as people say (since I can't get a copy right now), but I hope the publishers gets more copies out there so people can read it and decide for themselves.