"It can only be good for all of us if more people are in the stores."--Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, quoted in the Wall Street Journal about the release of Dan Brown's Lost Symbol today.

Last night at midnight, "people piled in line a block and a half long" at Water Street Bookstore, Exeter, N.H., to buy copies of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, who graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and lives in the area, according to the Union-Leader. "As many as 400 to 500 people showed at the bookstore to buy a copy" of the book. Owner Dan Chartrand said, "People are ecstatic."

Part of the attraction, as Seacoastonline explained: Brown, who had worked on some of his early books in an office next to the bookstore and credits Chartrand with helping him before he became Dan Brown, marked his connection to the store and Exeter by supplying 1,000 special edition signed copies of The Lost Symbol with a dedication to the store, "Where it all began." The books are available only in person.

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Chris Doeblin, owner of Book Culture, New York, N.Y., told the Columbia Spectator that negotiations with Columbia University to expand his business, which is on 112th street, into Morningside Bookshop's previous home on 114th and Broadway are "very advanced."

The 114th Street location would serve as "the companion trade shop to his current 113th Street textbook haven," according to the Spectator, which noted that "though he is confident the model will work, he has his fears of investing so much upfront during such uncertain times for his industry. 'This is not just a change, it is a groundswell,' he said of bookselling, a trade in which many large chains like Borders are deeply suffering. 'But this could be good for us.'"

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Brad Jones and Cinda Meister are planning a January opening for Garlic City Books, Gilroy, Calif. The Dispatch reported that the owners of BookSmart, Morgan Hill, "decided to expand south, with a little coaxing from local developer Gary Walton.

"Every downtown should have an independent bookstore," Walton said.

"We're looking forward to seeing a renaissance downtown," Jones added. "And we hope to be a part of it. . . . In Morgan Hill, there's definitely an attitude where people want to support anything going on downtown. In Gilroy, there doesn't seem to be that attitude. We want to change that. Absolutely."

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"I'm willing to bet that no two books released on the same day for the rest of the year will top our combined total sales. Dan Brown and I are going to make publishing history," wrote Ivy Pochoda in the Huffington Post. Her novel, The Art of Disappearing, is also being released today.

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For anyone interested in the late Senator Edward Kennedy, the Kennedy family, its role in American politics and what it's like for an editor to work closely with a major public figure on his memoir, we highly recommend listening to yesterday's Fresh Air, during which Terry Gross interviewed Jonathan Karp, editor-in-chief and publisher of Twelve Books, about True Compass. The show can be heard online.

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Cool idea of the day: on the menu for the launch party of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters hosted tonight at Idlewild Books, New York City:

Sea-green punch, fried calamari, a sea-related soundtrack ("Octopus's Garden", "Rock Lobster," etc.) and readings from the book by co-author Winters and Hannah Tinti, author of the Dickensian adventure The Good Thief. Images from the book will be projected behind the authors during the dramatic reading, which will be filmed and posted on the Internet later this month.

Effective January 1, Simon & Schuster will handle the sales of Andrews McMeel Publishing books to the trade. AMP will continue to sell to the gift channel and will continue to sell its calendar line, except to independent bookstores.

In a statement, Hugh T. Andrews, CEO and president of AMP, said, "S&S has fulfilled our distribution needs capably and effectively for nearly a decade, as well as selling our titles in the U.K. and internationally, which makes this expanded association both a great fit and a natural progression."

Noting "a long and fruitful relationship with our independent commissioned sales representatives," Andrews added, "This transition reflects not only a changing bookselling environment, but also allows us to concentrate on a core strength for us: recognizing and celebrating remarkable creative talent, providing content, and delivering it to the public through a variety of distribution channels."

Michael Selleck, S&S's executive v-p, sales and marketing, called AMP "a valued distribution client for many years" and said the company has "a first-rate list of titles with broad appeal, and we look forward to helping them grow sales with our customers."

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Heather Belle and Michelle Fiordaliso, authors of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ex* (Sourcebooks, $14.99, 9781402229237/1402229232).

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Tomorrow on Live with Regis and Kelly: Serena Williams, author of On the Line (Grand Central, $26.99, 9780446553667/0446553662).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Harvey Cox, author of The Future of Faith (HarperOne, $24.99, 9780061755521/0061755524).

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Tomorrow on the Wendy Williams Show: Jorge and Laura Posada, authors of Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way (Atria, $25, 9781439109311/1439109311).

Also on the Wendy Williams Show: Lisa Lampanelli, author of Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat, and Freaks (It Books, $24.99, 9780061733154/0061733156).

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Tomorrow on the View: Jeffrey Ross, author of I Only Roast the Ones I Love: Busting Balls Without Burning Bridges (Simon Spotlight, $24.99, 9781439101407/143910140X).

Disgrace, based on the book by J. M. Coetzee that won the Booker Prize in 1999, opens this Friday, September 18. John Malkovich stars as a South African professor who is fired after seducing a student. The movie tie-in is from Penguin ($15, 9780143115281/0143115286).

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, September 22:

An Echo in the Bone: A Novel by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte, $30, 9780385342452/0385342454) is the seventh entry in the fantasy Outlander series.

A Change in Altitude: A Novel by Anita Shreve (Little, Brown, $26.99, 9780316020701/0316020702) follows a newlywed couple on an ill-fated year of adventure in Kenya.

Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions, $29.99, 9781416595014/1416595015) is full of political opinions from the Fox News show host.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins (Free Press, $30, 9781416594789/1416594787) explains the theory of evolution in simple terms.

American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot by Craig Ferguson (Harper, $25.99, 9780061719547/0061719544) is the memoir of the late night talk show host.


Now in paperback

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles (Ten Speed Press, $18.99, 9781580089876/1580089879).

When Sara Backer's novel American Fuji arrived in stores earlier this month, it was déjà vu for Marilyn Lustig. Once again, she began handselling the book to customers at Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Mass. "I'm thrilled it has been reissued," said Lustig. "It's like a classic that you want to keep around."

Originally published in 2001, American Fuji garnered praise from the New York Times Book Review, the Detroit Free Press and other publications as well as from writers like Sue Grafton and Simon Winchester. "It got wonderful reviews, but it never reached the audience that it should have," said Leslie Gelbman, president and publisher of Berkley Books (an imprint of the Penguin Group USA). The novel subsequently went out of print.

This time around, Gelbman hopes American Fuji--in a repackaged trade paperback edition--will reach a wider readership. "There is much more interest now in Japan," she said. "It's such a wonderful book. It has everything. It's a father-son story, it's a romance, it's inspirational, and it's a slice of life for the armchair traveler because it really depicts Japan so well."

American Fuji is the tale of two Americans whose lives intersect in Japan. Gaby Stanton, unexpectedly fired from her job teaching English at Shizuyama University, agrees to act as translator and guide for psychologist Alex Thorn, who is seeking answers about the death of his son, an exchange student. As they navigate the intricacies and customs of Japanese society, they encounter a cast of quirky and intriguing characters, among them a fantasy funeral entrepreneur who speaks English only in Beatles lyrics.

"It's fascinating in how it shows the differences between American and Japanese cultures," said Lustig. "Besides enjoying the story, it really got me interested in learning more about Japanese culture. It turned me on to a whole genre of books." Her reading selections have included other novels depicting Americans in Japan, such as Ash by Holly Thompson and Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner.

To promote American Fuji, the publisher is focusing its efforts on online marketing and reaching out to reading groups. A month-long promotion is running on ReadingGroupChoices.com, and copies of the novel were sent to 100 book club leaders. As Backer points out, there are plenty of universal topics to discuss: "It's set in Japan, but it's about alienation and forgiveness, grief, academic politics, chronic illness and health care, feminism, popular culture, mountain climbing, secret fantasies, and the surprises life throws at everyone."

Backer spent three years in the 1990s teaching at Japan's Shizuoka University--the first American and the first woman to serve there as a visiting professor of English. (She currently lives in New Hampshire and teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.) "As a woman, I experienced a different Japan from the one I read about in books. I was often invited inside Japanese houses, and Japanese women spoke to me the way they simply can't speak to men," she said. "The friends I made were not fellow expats, but my Japanese colleagues and students. I recently met a Fulbright scholar who said American Fuji prepared her for Japan better than any other book she'd read."

On her blog, americanfuji.blogspot.com, Backer shares stories and photos of her experiences in Japan, some of which--like climbing Mount Fuji--she used in the novel. "American Fuji is good at defying description," said Backer. "If you think you've read another novel like it, you haven't. That's what makes it stick in your mind--like Beatles' lyrics."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt