Broken Trail--the book and movie--has broken new ground
for both cable TV network AMC, which is showing the first half of the new
three-hour movie this coming Sunday, June 25, and Fulcrum Publishing,
Denver, Colo., which has published the book ($14.95, 1555916058) written by the film's
screenwriter, Alan Geoffrion. (Geoffrion has written short
stories and screenplays and been in the horse business for more than 40
years.) Broken Trail is AMC's first major original movie and
Fulcrum's "first real novel," Mike Dyer, v-p of sales and
business development, told Shelf Awareness."It's been an eye-opening experience" to sell fiction, Dyer continued. In "niche nonfiction," there's a leniency for a quick new title, but with fiction, reviewers want galleys three to six months and more before pub date, and reviewers continue to be biased against paperback fiction originals, he said. Because the final version of the book was put together only this spring, "We missed all kinds of cycles." And even though many booksellers have asked for paper publications because of the price advantage with customers, some were confused by Broken Trail, which is a paperback.
Dyer was also surprised by the initial "reluctance" of some accounts to buy more than one or two copies of a book whose movie version has a $15 million marketing budget. Now at least, including sales through wholesalers, the company has an estimated 30%-40% of stock in independent trade stores, and Wal-Mart has taken 20,000 copies. The book first shipped the week of BEA.
Featuring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church and produced and directed by Walter Hill, Broken Trail the movie, which closely parallels the book, takes place at the turn of the last century. An uncle and nephew played by Duvall and Church are on a drive across the old West, bringing horses to a representative of the British Empire who wants them for use in the Boer War. On the way, the cowboys come across a scoundrel who is transporting five young Chinese women he had bought in San Francisco to take to mining camps to work as prostitutes. Dyer said that "unlike a lot of Westerns, there is only a little shoot-'em-up" in the film and book. "It takes a different tack. At the core is the five women's story." The movie also is appearing at a time when there has been a resurgence in the genre, particularly following HBO's Deadwood series and Brokeback Mountain. At least four more Westerns will be appearing in the next year or so, including one starring Brad Pitt as Jesse James.
Working with AMC was "great and very collaborative," Dyer said. AMC will likely run the movie 20 or 30 times more during the summer and is doing a "making of Broken Trail" movie. Its marketing for the film includes ads on the network, billboards in Los Angeles and posters on many phone kiosks in New York City. Besides that, Duvall in particular has been making the rounds of radio and TV shows touting the movie and book, often bringing along Geoffrion. Last week the movie had a premiere in New York City, which featured a paparazzi-lined red carpet for stars like Duvall--and a discreet side entrance for cowpokes from places like Fulcrum and Shelf Awareness.
The project had an unusual genesis. A year and a half ago, Fulcrum president and publisher Bob Baron and associate publisher and v-p Sam Scinta were in Washington, D.C., in January and were casually invited to a Super Bowl party "in Virginia." They went, and the party turned out to be at Duvall's house. There they met Alan Geoffrion and learned about the Broken Trail movie project that Geoffrion had been working on for years. The author said he had "roughed out" a manuscript and wondered if Scinta might mind "checking it out to see if there was a book."
The movie was filmed last fall in Alberta, and Geoffrion spent much of the winter finishing the book. "We got the manuscript in chunks, and it was finally put together in February and March," Dyer said.
Another interesting aspect of this project involves printing. The book's printer, Malloy in Michigan, has promised a five-day turnaround from Fulcrum order to the delivery to the company's warehouse, part of an effort to encourage small- and medium-sized publishers not to overorder initially because of the lure of lower per-unit costs. After a first printing order of 20,000, Fulcrum has re-ordered weekly 3,000-5,000 copies, and the most recent order is another 20,000, putting the total at 50,000. "The book's effectively been out three weeks, and we're on our fourth print run," Dyer said with a bit of awe. "It's almost POD."
As a result of this approach, Fulcrum has "about 80%" of the Broken Trail stock "in the field. We're not storing most of it." For the company, it is "by far our bestselling title in years and the biggest media opportunity in company history," Dyer said.
Now that Fulcrum has blazed a trail into fiction, it will publish two more works of fiction this fall. "Sam [Scinta] always wanted to do fiction, but was looking for the right time," Dyer said.