Also by Word of Mouth

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. (Ballantine: $23). Soon after “Women Who Run With the Wolves” was bought in a spirited auction by Ballantine, the company flew Estes in to their annual meeting of sales reps. Many were exposed for the first time to what publicist Liz Williams calls Estes’ “medicine,” a charismatic presentation of her life’s work with women’s myths and archetypes. The book was published on July 1, 1992, with a print run of 40,000 that has grown, 25 print runs later, to 400,000 copies. By July 12, it was on the San Francisco Chronicle’s best-seller list. By August 16, it was on the New York Times’, where it has stayed for 23 weeks. This week, it falls in the number 2 slot on both the New York Times’ and the Los Angeles Times’ lists (here in its tenth week). Estes spent the summer working her medicine across the country, on buyers, booksellers and readers. Sales reps transfixed by that first meeting gave it their best; both the independent and the chain booksellers featured it prominently in their stores, and readers bought multiple copies.

Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life, by Thomas Moore (HarperCollins: $22.50). Published in May, 1992, “Care of the Soul” took four months to make it on the New York Times best-seller list, where it has stayed for six weeks (this week it’s No. 14). The first print run was 25,000, and now, 12 runs later, more than 100,000 copies have been published. While “Care of the Soul” has not yet appeared on our best-seller list, several bookstores report steadily rising sales. “The publicity was the same as any other book,” says Trigg Robinson, publicist at HarperCollins. So why the surge in sales? Word of mouth, the highest compliment available to author, editor and publicist alike. Also, sales in what is known as the “recovery market” typically swell in January--before New Year’s resolutions have crumbled irreparably.