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[[underlined]] Publishing [[/underlined]]

Popular book publishing at the Smithsonian continues to be focused in Smithsonian Exposition Books (SEB). During January [[underlined]] Fire of Life: The Smithsonian Book of the Sun [[/underlined]] will go to press. This volume is expected to appeal to approximately 3% of our National Associates membership and other lists, and sales are expected to reach about 60,000 copies.

Market tests will be conducted this winter and spring on a number of new topics and titles under consideration, including an anthology of [[underlined]] Smithsonian [[/underlined]] magazine, the [[underlined]] Thread of Life [[/underlined]] (the development of life on earth and biological evolution), and a cultural-historical atlas of the United States (with Rand McNally or R. R. Donnelly as co-publishers). Market tests will also survey potential readership interests in sub-series to be developed in Smithsonian areas of interest such as natural history, anthropology, art, air and space, etc. In addition, SEB will mail a questionnaire to a sampling of book buyers, as well as non-buyers, to analyze customer satisfaction and reactions to the SEB publishing program, to grasp the likes and dislikes of potential readers, and to solicit suggestions for the future.

For the first time in its history the Smithsonian Institution Press has ended the fiscal year with a significant surplus in revenues, thus helping to offset the costs of scholarly series published in the tradition of a university press. The unprecedented success was largely the result of a reinvigorated sales program and two highly successful co-publishing and co-distributing arrangements with the Harry N. Abrams