Other books are starting to feel the gravitational pull of Dan Brown affect their sales. Unfortunately, these books seem to be about grown up D&D players who wear robes and spank each other in hidden rooms. And not in the good way. But I suppose it’s better than no sales at all…

The success of The Lost Symbol is starting to have the expected positive impact on related titles. Cynthia Fowles, director of rights and publicity at Inner Traditions/Bear & Company, which received a huge boost from The Da Vinci Code, said the company has been monitoring inventory levels on all its books connected to Templars and secret societies to keep accounts from running out of stock. To date, two books in particular have benefited from increased consumer interest in all things Brown—James Wasserman’s The Secrets of Masonic Washington (Dec., 2008) and Robert Hieronimus and Laura Cortner’s Founding Fathers, Secret Societies (revised edition Dec., 2005).