Gourmet Today had a lot going for it before the magazine folded on October 5. For $40 (and $26.40 at Amazon), readers would get more than 1,000 recipes—for vegetable sides, seafood dishes, cocktails and much more -- from the editors at the prestigious magazine. There are no photos, but high-quality recipes and equally well-researched writing. However, now that Gourmet's final issue is on newsstands, sales of the book have jumped. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has seen sales increase since the magazine closed -- which was only two weeks after the book went on sale -- and former editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl, who'd committed to touring to promote the book months ago, has been a hotter than usual ticket in light of recent events. Booksellers are reporting a bump, and Amazon says sales of Gourmet Today have doubled since Conde Nast's announcement Gourmet was over.

Houghton reports that book sales were strong out of the gate (Gourmet Today went on sale September 22), but got stronger after a barrage of media coverage in the weeks following the October 5 news. According to publicity manager Alia Habib, the house printed 165,000 copies, and has received orders for 120,000 copies. Nielsen BookScan reports only 12,000 copies sold as of last week, although a "significant number" of Houghton's outlets (such as Williams-Sonoma) don’t report sales to BookScan, and the publisher has staged promotions at non-traditional outlets in the lead-up to holiday.