Ask any author or publisher, and they’ll tell you that garnering enough demand for reprints of any book is a very good sign. With that in mind, a million prints ordered prior to publication is a very rare indication of a predicted hit. After her performance at last Wednesday’s inauguration, Amanda Gorman’s publisher Penguin Random House is anticipating exactly that, ordering one million copies upfront of her first three books, as reported Thursday by CNN Business.
Commemorating her breakout moment on January 20, The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country, is due for publication on March 16, including a foreword by one of Gorman’s mentors, Oprah Winfrey. Following that special edition will be a full book of poetry, The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, as well as the children’s book Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem, both due for publication on September 21 of this year.
“Our goal has been to publish and release the The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country as soon as possible,” Shanta Newlin, executive director of publicity and corporate communications at Penguin Young Readers, told CNN. “We initially set a publication date of April 27th and today announced a new and improved date of March 16th.”
They may still be months from release, but preorders of the three titles have already landed them on the bestsellers lists of Barnes & Noble and Amazon, making those one million copy runs of each a likely conservative estimate. Despite the demand, fans will have to wait for their copies until March and September, respectively—but as announced on Wednesday, they can look forward to seeing Gorman perform another original poem at Super Bowl LV on February 7.
This news caps off a milestone week for Gorman, as on Tuesday, it was revealed that the fashion-minded Youth Poet Laureate, who has enjoyed a long association with Prada, has also signed with IMG Models.