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Random House sales undented by controversies
2006-03-22
Recent controversy surrounding two Random House bestsellers has not dented sales, but one of them may change the way memoirs are issued, the publisher's chief executive said on Wednesday. Author James Frey was exposed by investigative journalists to have invented portions of his memoir "A Million Little Pieces," and Dan Brown is being accused in court of plagiarizing portions of mega-seller "The Da Vinci Code." "The Frey book has continued to sell strongly in the new year," Random House Chief Executive Peter Olson told Reuters in an interview, adding that "The Da Vinci Code" has too, even after three years on global bestseller lists. "It continues to sell well in the UK and the U.S., but I wouldn't say we've seen any spike in sales," Olson said, referring to fallout from the London court case. "We expect when the paperback editions come out in North America, there will be very strong demand." Random House, a unit of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, plans to release "The Da Vinci Code" in paperback in North America shortly and is shipping 5 million copies of the religious-themed thriller. It is one of the most successful novels of all time with sales of more than 40 million copies but is alleged to have used some of the same ideas as "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," a 1982 work of historical conjecture also published by Random House. With the U.S. paperback and a film version starring Tom Hanks due out this year, courtroom observers bandied theories that perhaps the publisher orchestrated the controversy for publicity. "We don't plan litigation to foster book sales," Olson said, "but people do love conspiracy theories, there's no doubt about that, whether it's in fiction or in the press." CHANGES TO MEMOIRS Meanwhile, the Frey episode may prompt publishers to expect future memoirs to include explanations about how they were written, Olson said, but would not go so far as to usher in broad new fact-checking mandates for publishers. "I would not be surprised if in the future you see more memoirs with a publisher's note or an author's note to clarify the nature of the work," Olson said. "That's likely to happen. "I think the process, which has always been a book-by-book decision by acquiring editors and publishers and a trust relationship with the author, is one that is going to continue to evolve," he said. Random House reported a 19 percent gain in operating profit to a record 166 million euros ($200.4 million) on Wednesday on 2 percent revenue growth to 1.83 billion. New books from Bill Bryson, Alexander McCall Smith, Danielle Steel, Dean Koontz, Thomas Harris and John Grisham have Olson anticipating growth for Random House even after it bowed out of the bidding for Alan Greenspan's hotly anticipated memoir. Penguin Group, a unit of Pearson Plc, bought the rights for more than $8 million, publishing industry executives said. It fell short of the reported $12 million Random House paid for former U.S. President Bill Clinton's "My Life" but was still one of the biggest advances ever. Olson wouldn't comment on the price of either book but said such memoirs can be tough to pull off. "I think if we look back on the price we paid for the Clinton book, which we have never disclosed, the foreign rights sales and the successful marketing of it are an example of how you can take a relatively risky exercise -- a one-time political celebrity book -- and make it a success," he said. "But there are so many factors in deciding the price and distribution of a book like that, that it differs dramatically from a lot of our day-to-day work," he added. "It's a tough business."
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