• The New York Times , Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:16 AM

"The Shack" -- paperback novel by an unknown author about a grieving father who meets God in the form of a jolly African-American woman -- had its debut at No. 1 on The New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list on June 8 and has stayed there ever since. It is No. 1 on Borders Group's trade paperback fiction list, and at Barnes & Noble it has been No. 1 on the trade paperback list since the end of May.

Written by William P. Young, a former office manager and hotel night clerk in Gresham, Ore., the novel is the most compelling recent example of how a word-of-mouth phenomenon can explode into a blockbuster when the momentum hits chain bookstores, and the marketing and distribution power of a major commercial publisher is thrown behind it.

In May, Hachette Book Group USA entered into a partnership with Windblown Media, a company that was formed expressly to publish "The Shack" in May of last year. Hachette is now investing heavily to place advertisements on subways in Atlanta, Chicago and New York, as well as running television spots on the CNN airport network and other local stations. Young, who is known as Paul, says he wrote the book as a gift for his six children.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »