Promotional Information

Some recap of highlights of the hardcover will be on the paperback's cover, e.g. New York Times Review by Belief's columnist Peter Stenfels and a recent (Dec 2009) Times Literary Supplement review
Blurbs from Kirkus, ForeWord, Weekly Standard, and Kiser have since been published in the Washington Post and was a speaker at the Library of Congress
There is a two year publicity plan in place for the paperback that is targeted at the educational market. The Abd el Kader Education Project is being developed with high school teachers in Iowa to encourage students to read and reflect on the life of Emir Abd el- Kader in tandem with madrasa students in Pakistan.
The book was of course launched last year in Elkader, IA. The town established an essay contest of High School students on the meaning of Abd. el Kader's life. As you will read in the attached proposal, the author and oneblue (a nonprofit organization) are raising funds for prize money to create an Abd. elKader literary prize to help raise awareness and to drive the book into the college market.
The Urdu rights were sold last year and the text has been translated, awaiting editing and publication. Kiser made a presentation to the madrasa leadership in Pakistan and will do another this year, and the madrasa leaders are enthusiastic about teaching from the book. once the link between the Pakistan publication, and Elkader, IA are solidified, oneblue will be looking to gain national exposure for the book and author. kiser's researching this book, his travelling to pakistan and winning of madrasas leader, etc.
In the more immediate future, Kiser will continue his pursuit of university professors; there are a handful now that seem committed to teaching from the paperback once available.
Last year he sold over 100 copies of the hardcover at Politics and Prose (he lives in Va) through special talks he gave and invited them to sell books. We expect that kind of promotional activity continue, especially in the DC area and Iowa.
Monkfish will participate at whatever co-op ops from Consortium make sense.
Kiser will also continue to give talks to various kinds of groups, especially progressive Muslims, diplomats and philanthropists.
He proved to be a force of nature with the hardcover, landing both the NYT and TLS.

Reviews

"...a dramatic story of quarreling tribes, of Sufi sects and brotherhoods, of treacherous Ottoman officials, rival French generals, secret negotiations, broken truces, terrible atrocities and new forms of insurgency and counterinsurgency warfare. Any number of episodes could inspire novels... But it is hard to read Commander of the Faithful without thinking of more recent events. - Peter Steinfels, New York Times"...a strikingly good biography and an important one as well... the result of more than a decade of scholarly research." - ForeWord Magazine"...notable for illustrating that the meeting of civilizations need not always produce a clash." - Kirkus Reviews"...a valuable and timely reminder of a gifted man who is regarded by many as a philosopher-saint who balanced devout faith with openness to new ideas.... that rare figure: a bridge between East and West." - Times Literary Supplement"...brings both the man and his world brilliantly to life." - Steve Simon, Council on Foreign Relations"...could only have been written by someone with a profound knowledge of the French and Arab worlds..." - Fredrick Starr, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies"...an important book on an important subject. I hope it will reach a wide audience. I will introduce it to my fellow scholars and students." - Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University"Commander of the Faithful should be used as a guidebook for understanding current and future conflicts and interventions." - Col. John Bourgeois USMC (ret)