Salem, Mass. —- Every first novel needs a plan for introducing the new writer to a national audience, and the plan for Brunonia Barry, author of "The Lace Reader," has a rare and clever twist.

Along with the standard ad campaign and author tour, publisher William Morrow is working with Salem's tourism agency, local merchants and historic sites to promote the book, which is set here, and the city at the same time. While Salem would like "The Lace Reader" to draw tourists to town, author and publisher hope the city's attractions will bolster the book.

"It has been the greatest thing to fall into Salem's lap, for promotion and marketing," said Kate Fox, director of Destination Salem, the tourism bureau. "It already has this great literary past, with Hawthorne and playwright Arthur Miller [author of 'The Crucible,' about the Salem witchcraft trials], and now having a contemporary novel is a treat."

"The Lace Reader" is a psychic mystery set in this old seaport town, notorious for the 17th-century witchcraft hysteria and later known for the fiction of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and the 19th-century China trade. Barry and her husband, Gary Ward, self-published the book last fall, and it stirred such interest that they landed a $2 million contract to republish it with Morrow. The new edition recently hit bookstore shelves with a massive first printing of 150,000.

Sandy Barry (Brunonia is a pen name), 47, was born in Salem and raised in neighboring Marblehead. In 1995 she returned from Los Angeles, where she had worked as a screenwriter, and began to write a novel. "The Lace Reader" concerns Towner Whitney, one of a family of women with the power to see the future in the patterns of Ipswich lace. Towner has a troubled and confused past, and when her beloved Aunt Eva drowns under mysterious circumstance, she returns to Salem from Los Angeles to settle her aunt's affairs. Soon she is drawn into a maelstrom involving putative local witches, a loony evangelical cult and a love affair with a city detective.

The city of Salem is a vivid central character in "The Lace Reader." While the human characters are imaginary, the book is full of real streets and places.

When Morrow bought her book, Barry saw possible appealing synergies. "A sense of place is such a strong part of the novel," said Tavia Kowalchuk, Morrow's marketing director, "and the history of the city makes it a natural attraction."

Morrow sent a film crew to Salem to make a video of scenes mentioned in the book, as well as a lacemaker at work. The video appears on the Web sites of the book (Lacereader.com) and Destination Salem (Salem.org).

Historical and cultural organizations were eager to participate. The First Church of Salem allowed filming of Barry in the sanctuary. The House of the Seven Gables, made famous by Hawthorne's novel of that name, is planning a walking "literatour" of locations that appear in "The Lace Reader."

Business, too, has joined in. The Salem Trolley will offer "Lace Reader" tours. Artemesia Botanicals on Pickering Wharf, which gives tarot card readings, will do lace readings (though the art is entirely Barry's invention) at the book's release party.

Countless novels have been set in big cities, but locating a novel in a relatively more intimate, colorful and historic community like Salem, can draw people who want to see the real places they read about. While that's good short-term publicity for a new book, it can benefit a city for years.

In fiction, the closest precedent is John Berendt's 1994 megaseller, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," set in Savannah. So many tourists flocked to Savannah that the famous statue used on the book jacket of the little girl with arms outstretched was removed from the Bonaventure Cemetery and placed in the local art museum for safekeeping.

"It's still going on," said Lindsay Whitaker of the Savannah Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. "The locals refer to [Berendt's novel] as 'the book.' It really put Savannah on the map." The Book Gift Shop and Midnight Museum specializes in "Midnight" collectibles and offers bus and walking tours of sites in the novel.

Barry said she is pleased that her hometown has a virtual life in book, and that the real Salem may reap the benefits.

"I hoped this would happen for Salem," she said, "because I love it so much here." She's already 200 pages into her next novel. Of course, it's set in Salem.