Suzanne Herz of Knopf Doubleday says that this kind of fervent response was absolutely what the publisher expected. "There is no comparison," she said, between The Lost Symbol's success and the early sales of Brown's other novels. Anticipating massive demand, the publisher had to go back to press immediately prior to release in order to print an additional 600,000 copies (bringing the total number to 5.6 million). According to Carolyn Brown, spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, the book exploded past previous first-day records. "No other adult fiction title even comes close."

Brown's sequel to his massively successful 2003 hit, The Da Vinci Code, a cultural symbol in its own right, finds his popular protagonist Robert Langdon back in the United States, returned from his two-book European vacation, and faced with another series of cryptic clues and shadowy goings-on. Fans are clearly excited at the prospect of another go-round with their favorite (likely by default) Harvard symbologist. Like one of Brown's beloved ambigrams, whether read backwards or forwards, this spells major success for the author.