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Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the richest man in the U.S., always had a mouth that moved financial markets. Now he's showing Oprah-like abilities to drive the book market too.
A few weeks back, on his blog the Gates Notes, he named Business Adventures, a long forgotten, out-of-print collection of stories penned by the New Yorker's John Brooks, the best business book he ever read. The book, published in 1971--and until this month, out of print--went viral. (The fact that the mysterious book was given to Gates in 1991 by America’s second richest man, Warren Buffett didn't hurt). The book profiles now ancient business decisions (and blunders) from the likes of Ford Motors, Xerox and Piggly Wiggly. Those tales might be 45-years old, but right now Business Adventures is the #2 in non-fiction e-book on the New York Times Best Seller List (ahead Orange is the New Black and Heaven is for Real) and #7 in non-fiction combined print and electronic (ahead of books like Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell). It's also the #1 best selling business e-book on Amazon Kindle. The paperback edition won’t ship until August 12th but is already #11 on Amazon's bestseller list.
"Business Adventures" is now a bestseller more than 40 years after its original publication.
From PCs to vaccines, find out how Bill Gates made his mark on the world.
But even with a pitchman as influential as Bill Gates--and indirectly Warren Buffett--an out of print book can't become a best seller if it's out of print. Enter Open Road Media. Open Road founder Jane Friedman knows the book business. She ran both Knopf and later,
Four months ago Open Road, which has deals with several former New Yorker writers, was in talks with John Brook's agent, Craig Tenney at Harold Ober Associates, to attain the rights for two of his other books, The Go-Go Years and Once in Golconda. (Open Road does not pay advances, and instead offers a 50/50 royalty partnership with writers or their estates). Friedman said Tenney mentioned that Gates foundation had showed interest in a third, little-known Brooks book called Business Adventures. "We had no idea about what this would become. We’re not idiots--we knew if Bill Gates was reaching out that he’d do something special , but we saw his blog the same time the public did. We didn't know that it would be this explosive," says Friedman. "It was stunning. The second it appeared you could tell people were going right online and ordering it. It was instantaneous. Our job is to keep it going."
To keep it going Open Road will market Business Adventures heavily into the holiday season. Then there's custom printing for corporations and potentially heavy demand for business schools. "It reminds me of 1987 when the stock market crashed and we were the publisher of Tom Peters’ Thriving On Chaos-- of course that book went through the roof. A friend called me and said, 'Jane I know you’re a great publisher but to make the stock market crash?' I’m reliving all that again and it’s really cool."
(Follow me on Twitter at @StevenBertoni)
