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Jun. 30--By any standard, The Devil Wears Prada was a smash upon its publication in 2003.
The gossipy Lauren Weisberger novel about the world of fashion magazines sold nearly half a million hardcovers and 1.1 million paperbacks.
But wait: Since it was reissued May 30 in trade and mass paperback, in anticipation of the film version, the novel has sold a remarkable 1.2 million copies -- or two year's worth of sales in less than a month.
"We owe our movie colleagues a debt of gratitude, very much so," said David Drake, executive director of publicity for the publisher, Broadway Books.
Movies not only rejuvenate the sales of popular books, Drake said, but also provide much-needed visibility for books flying low on the radar.
"We had similar success with Catch Me if You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake," he said, referring to the book by Stan Redding and Frank W. Abagnale.
"The movie starred Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, and, I think, brought this fascinating story to people's attention.
"The pattern is for a movie to boost the sales of a book that's already been a best-seller, such as Under the Tuscan Sun, but it can also work to give life to a relatively obscure book."
The Lord of the Rings trilogy had experienced consistent sales ever since it was published in 1954-55, but even its publisher, Houghton Mifflin, didn't anticipate the demand for the J.R.R. Tolkien books with the release of the three Rings movies.
"We saw our sales (of The Lord of the Rings) grow 1,000 percent in 2001 from pre-film levels," said Megan Wilson of Houghton Mifflin. "And in the three years the movies were coming out, from 2001 through 2003, we sold 25 million copies of books by Tolkien."
The Chronicles of Narnia -- seven C.S. Lewis books published from 1950 to 1956 -- had likewise remained a prime property for the HarperCollins children's division.
Still, earlier demand didn't come close to the appeal that Narnia enjoyed during the winter run of the recent film.
"We had huge sales before, during and after the release of the movie," said Sandee Roston, executive director of publicity for HarperCollins children's books.
The Narnia movie nudged the hardcover of the classic to No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list, with the paperback reaching No. 1.
Capote, a recent film about the travails of Truman Capote while writing In Cold Blood, stoked interest in that truecrime classic.
"In Cold Blood was a slowburner," Roston said, "and then suddenly it's on the best-seller list after the movie. Capote definitely piqued people's curiosity for the book."
As noted by Robin Nesbitt, manager of collection development at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, movies based on popular books such as The Da Vinci Code usually increase patron interest in the titles.
Yet the magic rarely works in reverse.
"We still have 629 reserves on The Da Vinci Code, and when we put it out in our branches it just flies off the shelves," she said. "But when we ordered several copies of the book adaptation of the movie The Day After Tomorrow, it just kind of sat there."
Which books are helped most by movies isn't easily predicted, Nesbitt said.
"Memoirs of a Geisha (by Arthur Golden) had been out 10 years before the movie adaptation came out last year," she said, "but interest really took off again for the novel."
After a long hiatus from the best-seller list, Geisha climbed to No. 3 two days after the film was released on Dec. 23. (Did disappointed moviegoers, perhaps, want to cleanse their palates with the novel?) Book buyers snapped up more than 2 million copies of the edition of Geisha tied to the screen version, according to Sabine Eckle, publicist for Vintage Books.
"Obviously," Drake said, "the better the movie, the more it can help book sales."
Coming soon are films based on the classic political novel All the King's Men (Sept. 22), the teen-written fantasy Eragon (Dec. 15) and the beloved E.B. White story Charlotte's Web (Dec. 20).
Each title, no doubt, will see a boost in readership.
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