Book Business Sees a Bonanza in a Forthcoming Biography

It took only hours on Wednesday night for Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Steve Jobs to shoot up the best-seller list on Amazon.com, eventually moving from No. 384 to the No. 1 spot. On Thursday morning, a book buyer at Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., quintupled its order of the book, to 500 copies. Simon & Schuster, the publisher, said it was accelerating the publication, moving the release date to Oct. 24 from Nov. 21. And by the afternoon, the publishing industry was marveling at the potential of the book, simply titled “Steve Jobs,” weeks before its release.

“We think it’s the biggest adult nonfiction book of the year,” said Patricia Bostelman, the vice president for marketing at Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain.

Mr. Isaacson will appear on “60 Minutes” closer to its release date, two people with knowledge of publicity plans for the book said. An excerpt will run in Fortune magazine after the book is published.

The book is currently being printed and bound, but Simon & Schuster, adopting Jobs-like secrecy, would not say how many copies it expected to print. Industry experts said it could easily sell millions of copies in print, audio and e-book editions. George W. Bush’s memoir, “Decision Points,” published last year, sold more than three million copies, considered a huge number in the industry.

Much of the book’s allure comes from the promise of a peek into the private life of Mr. Jobs, who died Wednesday. Mr. Jobs’s public image was tightly controlled. But in meetings with book buyers, Mr. Isaacson promised that the book would deal with personal aspects of Mr. Jobs’s life, including previously unknown stories of his childhood and adolescence, not just the story of his business career.

The book will also appeal to admirers of Mr. Isaacson, who has written acclaimed biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.

“The reason I think it’s going to be so important is that it’s not an instant book,” said Elaine Petrocelli, the owner of Book Passage, a bookstore with two outlets in the Bay Area. “This is a book that Isaacson has worked on and has his full knowledge and what he brings to a book.”

It will also appeal to a wide range of readers, not just those passionate about technology, Ms. Petrocelli said. “My children who are starting their careers are fascinated with him, and they’ll want to read it, and I want to read it,” she said. “I see it as a great Christmas present. I think everyone will want it.”

Despite some anti-Apple sentiment in Portland, Gerry Donaghy, a book buyer at Powell’s, said he expected the book to sell hundreds of copies, hardly small change at the $35 hardcover list price.

“There is a lot of naysaying about the ‘cult of Apple’ and whatnot, but as the major media is highlighting how he really changed consumers’ relationships with computers, technology, music and movies, I think more folks will be interested,” Mr. Donaghy said in an e-mail.

Interest in the book was not limited to big cities on the coasts. Jessilynn Norcross, an owner of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., said the store had already printed small posters to hang on the registers, gently publicizing the book. They read: “iSad :(.”

“If anybody wants to order, this is our way of telling them about it without being obnoxious,” she said. “You know your customers are going to want it, but you don’t want to be insensitive. It’s a sad day.”

Mr. Isaacson had the cooperation of Mr. Jobs, who granted more than 40 interviews over two years as he battled pancreatic cancer. Mr. Isaacson, the chief executive of the Aspen Institute, also conducted interviews with Mr. Jobs’s family members and colleagues.

The book was originally announced by Simon & Schuster in April, bearing the title “iSteve: The Book of Jobs,” and scheduled for a spring 2012 publication. Simon & Schuster later moved up the release date to November and changed the title to “Steve Jobs.”

The publisher has said that Mr. Jobs did not ask for control over the content of the book, and that Mr. Jobs spoke “candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against.”