AFTERMATH OF THE TOWER REPORT : Copies Not Exactly Best Sellers
From a sales standpoint, the Tower Commission’s report on the Iran- contra scandal ranks somewhere between the federal budget and a government pornography study.
John Pearson, who manages the largest of three Government Printing Office bookstores in Washington, said the Tower report has been selling briskly since it was made public Thursday, although not as well as the President’s fiscal 1988 budget proposal did last month.
“I wouldn’t compare it with the budget at all,” he said. “But it’s much better than the Meese Commission report on pornography,” issued by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III last July.
Pearson said he had sold 2,000 copies of the 290-page paperback Tower report, at $14 a copy, by Friday morning. The two other area stores reported combined sales of about 700 books.
The Tower report was available only in Washington Friday, but shipments should reach government bookstores around the country by early next week. Twenty thousand copies were printed for public sale. An additional 6,000 were printed for government officials.
Reasons for buying the book ranged from professional interest to personal curiosity. One man standing in line, who asked to remain anonymous, said his law firm purchased several copies Thursday. “Now, I’m buying one for myself, and I’m sending one back to my parents out West. They like keeping up with this,” he said.
