It’s thought to be the bestselling modern classic. And now, the publication of a ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ sequel is prompting high hopes for the publishing business and its customers.
“I wanted you to see,” says Atticus Finch in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, “what real courage is… It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
Courage may not be the most precise word for what Nelle Harper Lee is doing, but it is certainly amazing. At age 88, more than 50 years after the release of her 1960 novel, the author is set to publish a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird.The new book, which was written back in the 1950s, beforeTo Kill a Mockingbird, is called Go Set a Watchman.
Upon announcement of the sequel on Tuesday, To Kill a Mockingbird shot up to no. 2 in Apple’s iBooks store. On Amazon, it currently ranks no. 3 in all books, while the sequel, available for preorder, is no. 1 overall. “This is a remarkable literary event,” said Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham in yesterday’s press release. “The existence of Go Set a Watchman was unknown until recently, and its discovery is an extraordinary gift.”
To Kill a Mockingbird has endured like no other modern classic. It is thought to have sold more than 40 million copies, though Hugh Van Dusen, Lee’s editor at HarperCollins, told New York’s Vulture blog, “No one is really sure how many copies it has sold since publication… it’s more than [40 million], but roughly in that neighborhood.” The book will have an enormous first printing of 2 million copies, which is nearly unprecedented, and not far from the 4.8 million-copy first run of the fourth Harry Potter book, reportedly the largest first printing ever. Mockingbird sells more copies every year than The Catcher in the Rye, more than The Great Gatsby, more than 1984.
And there is hope that this new book can serve as a rising tide that buoys all sales, rather than giving just HarperCollins a single hit. “This is welcomed news for everybody who works in publishing,” says Paul Bogaards, who is Knopf Doubleday’s executive VP of media relations and a popular figure among literary circles on Twitter. “Any book that drives traffic into stores is good for the industry as a whole. It’s an opportunity for retailers to merchandise other books, capture other sales. I know some have said about these big book publications that customers come in, ask for the title in question, and leave, and that there is no ripple. But I think we’re living in an era of extremely well curated bookstores, and all of them are going to seize this opportunity.”
The new book’s publication date in the height of summer—July 14 of this year—is another savvy move, since it is the time of year when children are reading for school, and adults are reading for pleasure. Bogaards predicts that the timing, “will result in a lot of creative table initiatives from booksellers.” (Don’t be surprised, either, if the next bit of news, before the book is even out, is that it’s been optioned for a film.)
Read more: 'Mockingbird' sequel prompts high hopes—and controversy
“I wanted you to see,” says Atticus Finch in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, “what real courage is… It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
Courage may not be the most precise word for what Nelle Harper Lee is doing, but it is certainly amazing. At age 88, more than 50 years after the release of her 1960 novel, the author is set to publish a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird.The new book, which was written back in the 1950s, beforeTo Kill a Mockingbird, is called Go Set a Watchman.
Upon announcement of the sequel on Tuesday, To Kill a Mockingbird shot up to no. 2 in Apple’s iBooks store. On Amazon, it currently ranks no. 3 in all books, while the sequel, available for preorder, is no. 1 overall. “This is a remarkable literary event,” said Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham in yesterday’s press release. “The existence of Go Set a Watchman was unknown until recently, and its discovery is an extraordinary gift.”
To Kill a Mockingbird has endured like no other modern classic. It is thought to have sold more than 40 million copies, though Hugh Van Dusen, Lee’s editor at HarperCollins, told New York’s Vulture blog, “No one is really sure how many copies it has sold since publication… it’s more than [40 million], but roughly in that neighborhood.” The book will have an enormous first printing of 2 million copies, which is nearly unprecedented, and not far from the 4.8 million-copy first run of the fourth Harry Potter book, reportedly the largest first printing ever. Mockingbird sells more copies every year than The Catcher in the Rye, more than The Great Gatsby, more than 1984.
And there is hope that this new book can serve as a rising tide that buoys all sales, rather than giving just HarperCollins a single hit. “This is welcomed news for everybody who works in publishing,” says Paul Bogaards, who is Knopf Doubleday’s executive VP of media relations and a popular figure among literary circles on Twitter. “Any book that drives traffic into stores is good for the industry as a whole. It’s an opportunity for retailers to merchandise other books, capture other sales. I know some have said about these big book publications that customers come in, ask for the title in question, and leave, and that there is no ripple. But I think we’re living in an era of extremely well curated bookstores, and all of them are going to seize this opportunity.”
The new book’s publication date in the height of summer—July 14 of this year—is another savvy move, since it is the time of year when children are reading for school, and adults are reading for pleasure. Bogaards predicts that the timing, “will result in a lot of creative table initiatives from booksellers.” (Don’t be surprised, either, if the next bit of news, before the book is even out, is that it’s been optioned for a film.)
Read more: 'Mockingbird' sequel prompts high hopes—and controversy