Iraq report hits bookstores with high expectations
Source: Reuters
By Daniel Trotta NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The Iraq Study Group Report hit U.S. bookstores on Wednesday with expectations of becoming a bestseller but little immediate evidence it could match sales of the official Sept. 11 inquiry. Random House released a 142-page paperback edition of the report on the day the bipartisan panel co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton released its assessment of the conflict in Iraq to U.S. President George W. Bush and Congress. "We anticipate that The Iraq Study Group Report will be an instant bestseller. We expect there to be an initial pop and then sales will level off accordingly," said Bob Wietrak, a vice president of merchandising for Barnes & Noble <BKS.N>, the top U.S. book retailer. But many bookstores in New York City had yet to receive their shipments on Wednesday, although a Barnes & Noble store in the Chelsea district of Manhattan displayed copies at the front desk as soon as they received them, a clerk said. Other publishing experts and retailers said it was still too early to gauge sales. The report, which has a cover price of $10.95, climbed the Amazon.com <AMZN.O> best seller list throughout the day and reached No. 20 as of 3:20 p.m. EST (2020 GMT), up from No. 3,735 on Tuesday. The list measures sales over the previous 24 hours. An Amazon spokesman would not say how many copies were sold. The book was published by Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House's Knopf Group. Random House is a unit of German media group Bertelsmann AG <BERT.UL>. Vintage Books declined to say how many copies were printed in the first run. It can only hope for a repeat of the success of W.W. Norton's publication of the "The 9/11 Commission Report" in 2004. The paperback version of the official inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks sold more than 1 million copies. "People want to get the original source document instead of hearing it through the media. I hope it's a bestseller," said Russell Perreault, vice president and director of publicity for Vintage. At New York City's Strand Book Store, owner Nancy Bass Wyden said she hoped buzz over the report would boost sales once it hits her shelves on Thursday. "So far there's not a lot of requests," said Bass Wyden, who doubts it would repeat the success of the 9/11 report. "9/11 was cataclysmic for New Yorkers, so it was a big seller," she said. A portion of the proceeds from the purchase of the report will be donated to the National Military Family Association.
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