• The Wall Street Journal , Thursday, June 19, 2008 11:45 AM

Thanks to strong reviews and promotional support from Amazon.com, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle -- a literary coming-of-age tale by a 48-year-old first-time novelist -- has gone into its seventh printing a week after its publication. In a sign of Amazon's growing clout with readers, Ecco (an imprint of HarperCollins Publisher) has now ordered up a total of 90,000 copies of the book.

The Web retailer chose the book as one of the best books of June and aggressively hyped it, including by posting a long and enthusiastic blurb from Stephen King. The same blurb was printed inside "early reader" copies sent to reviewers, bloggers and booksellers. Amazon also kept Edgar Sawtelle on its home page for two weeks at a 40% discount before the book hit stores, and posted an essay written by the author at its request.

Adding to the impetus last week, Costco increased its initial order to 18,000 copies from 3,000. To give the book legs, Ecco has doubled to 16 the number of cities author David Wroblewski is to visit on a book tour now under way.

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