‘Da Vinci’ obsession finally fading
Simmered by three years of lawsuits, religious debates and conspiracy theories and brought to a boil in May by the Hollywood movie, the craze for all things “Da Vinci Code” is finally fading, publishers and booksellers agree.
“I would definitely say it’s slowing down,” Barnes & Noble fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley says. “Once everybody got past the movie, the whole thing peaked.”
“The spring definitely was the hottest time for this kind of book,” says editor Mark Tavani of Ballantine Books, which released Steve Berry’s “The Templar Legacy” – one of many “Da Vinci”-like novels to make best-seller lists earlier this year.
“It seems now that the wave has reached its end,” Tavani says.
Dan Brown’s conspiracy thriller – with its controversial suggestion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married – came out in March 2003, has sold more than 60 million copies and produced a parade of critical scorn, church condemnation and (unsuccessful) allegations of ripping off other writers.
Not only did “The Da Vinci Code” keep selling, but the market for anything similar – whether spinoffs such as “Cracking the Da Vinci Code” or thrillers like “The Templar Legacy” – kept growing, too.
It was a phenomenon that apparently peaked with the May 19 release of the “Da Vinci Code” film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks. The movie was a box-office hit worldwide.
” ‘The Da Vinci Code’ certainly created great opportunities for a number of authors to expand their readership, but in all likelihood we will not see a market like that again,” says Allison Elsby, category manager of genre fiction for Borders and Waldenbooks.
Noting a drop in demand, Barnes & Noble is taking down the special display tables dedicated to “Da Vinci Code” games, puzzles and related books. Publishers also report a decline in the number of proposals that cite “Da Vinci” similarities.
“There was a point where I felt like every week I was getting something that mentioned ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ and that has fallen off,” says Mitch Hoffman, a senior editor at Dutton Books, which published Raymond Khoury’s best-seller “The Last Templar.”
A test of the market will be Kathleen McGowan’s “The Expected One,” a speculative thriller about Mary Magdalene released last week with a substantial push from publisher Simon & Schuster and a special personal twist: The author hints that she is a descendent of Jesus and Mary.
“We could have put it out before the movie, but we decided to take our time,” says Mark Gompertz, publisher of Touchstone and Fireside, imprints of Simon & Schuster.
“We think summertime is a great time for reading ‘The Expected One’ and we feel we’re marketing a very different kind of book, told from a woman’s point of view.”