Local publisher prepares Lost Sales

[Sydney]

== Slightly spoilerish article ==


On television, the novel "The Third Policeman" is about to become linked to the island mysteries that surround the ABC series, "Lost."

In the real world, the book is about to set a sales record at Dalkey Archive Press at Illinois State University.

The not-for-profit publisher has sold nearly 10,000 copies in recent days just off the buzz the book is getting from the series, starting with the Oct. 5 episode.

"Lost" follows plane crash survivors stranded on a strange island. Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman" involves a murder and reoccurring time sequences. The narrator is dead, and he is obsessed with theories about life being but a hallucination and death being the supreme hallucination.

Dalkey started ramping up for "Lost"-driven sales in August, when "Lost" scriptwriter and executive producer Craig Wright called to forewarn Dalkey associate director Chad Post about use of the book in the series -- and the sales demand that would accompany it.

Wright didn't reveal the importance of "The Third Policeman," only its prominence.

Wright offered this in a recent Chicago Tribune article: Those who buy the book "will have a lot more ammunition in their back pocket as they theorize about the show. They will have a lot more to speculate about -- and, no small thing, they will have read a really great book."

Post responded, "It's the most selling quote I've ever seen."

The publisher's two best sellers, in a virtual tie at 23,000, are "Point Counter Point" and "Wittgenstein's Mistress."

Dalkey published "The Third Policeman" in 1999 and printed 15,000 copies. It printed another 10,000 copies in August. Those are almost gone, but another 10,000 are on the way to the north Normal warehouse, to chain stores and to Amazon.com.

The book had been selling about 4,000 copies a year. Post said its use in classrooms has kept demand somewhat steady, as small-press sales are measured. The TV series, though, gives it an enormous bump.

It also gives free media exposure to a publishing house with a limited budget for paid promotion.

- By Steve Arney, Pantagraph.com