Making the Foreign Affairs Bestseller List for July 2004

Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 6 August 2004

Friday was another chaotic day of preparation for China. Much of the problem was caused by a power outage at the college that morning, which simultaneously freed up my schedule while making it real hard for me to get anything done.

Much of the day was spent making sure I wasnít leaving any time bombs on my speaking schedule that would detonate upon my return in September. The rest of the time was spent getting my hardware all together and tested to make sure I could take notes via my Handspring, transfer that to my laptop, and then send that via a high-speed connection. I also tested transferring digital photos from my camera to the laptop for safekeeping and sending via email while on the road. So now I feel ready to blog whatever happens during this 3-week roadtrip.

Friday night was spent repacking the various bags my wife and I are carrying to China. Itís complex, because we have to have everything in hand to deal with a third passenger once we get baby, to include a car seat that can be used in planes (we donít believe in simply having kids sit on your lap while flying).

So, amidst all that running around, plus one last mowing of the lawn, you can imagine how neat it was to come across word from Foreign Affairs that I made the bestseller list there for the fourth consecutive monthóor basically every month that PNM has been in the market. Given my slippage from #6 in June to #13 in August, this may be my last month, but if it is, itís been a nice ride given how many books are out there right now analyzing U.S. foreign policy. I still maintain that there is nothing in spots ahead of me (#1-12) that purports to be a serious grand strategy for the U.S. right now, so I still feel like #1 in that department.

If this is my last month on the list, then I have come full circle

∑ April = #11

∑ May = #4

∑ June = #6

∑ July = #13.

I was awfully happy to make April, since my book only came out on the 26th of that month. While I donít expect to stay on for August, I do hold out hope for more sales perhaps as the school year commences. I am getting a lot of emails from students whoíve read the book and plan on spreading the word next year in school, so who knows? There may have been some of that buying going on in July, because by my calculation, it looked as though Fergusonís ìColossusî was beating me in the online rankings on B&N and Amazon for most of the month, but Ferguson wasnít on the FA list this month, suggesting Iím getting sales that arenít accounted for in the online rankings, which are only a fragment of what goes on out there in the various markets.

My drop in this monthís list is pretty much caused by new books, and that makes sense. I fell 7 places and there are 5 new books ahead of me. I fell the other two places due to Huntington finally catching me and Bodanskyís book moving up. Hereís the complete list, found at www.foreignaffairs.org/book/bestsellers.

The top-selling hardcover books on American foreign policy and international affairs. Rankings are based on national sales at Barnes & Noble stores and Barnes & Noble.com.

POSTED AUGUST 5, 2004

1 Imperial Hubris by Anonymous (Brassey's), new this month

2 Running on Empty by Peter G. Peterson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), new

3 Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster), #1 last month

4 Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke (Free Press), #2

5 House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger (Scribner), #4

6 How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer (HarperCollins), new

7 The Connection by Stephen F. Hayes (HarperCollins), #3

8 America the Vulnerable by Stephen Flynn (HarperCollins) new

9 A Pretext for War by James Bamford (Random House) #5

10 Secret History of the Iraq War by Yossef Bodansky (HarperCollins), #10

11 The Interrogators by Chris Mackey & Greg Miller (Little, Brown), new

12 Who Are We? By Samuel P. Huntington (Simon & Schuster), #7

13 The Pentagon's New Map by Thomas P.M. Barnett (Putnam Publishing Group), #6

14 Ghost Wars by Steve Coll (Penguin Press), #8

15 The End of Oil by Paul Roberts (Houghton Mifflin), #11

The bestseller list is published monthly by Foreign Affairs magazine. Rankings are based on national sales at Barnes & Noble stores and Barnes & Noble.com in July 2004.