Trenholm's Interpersonal Communication is one of our three books for the interpersonal communication course: the one that is highest in level, most sophisticated, and theory-heavy. This segment of the market, which used to include dry, heavy-duty competitors Canary and Knapp/Vangelisti, has eroded a bit and now hews more mainstream with brighter, full-color competitors such as McCornack and Floyd. These books offer the same level of scholarship and theory as Trenholm but in a prettier package that resembles a mainstream, mid-market book like Interplay.
Due to some serious leakage issues (more than half the copies sold were in Malaysia, etc), the sixth edition underperformed sales-wise, though it continues to be an important part of our list. The book has a strong fan base among instructors. Many reviewers were quick to praise the content, approach, and writing style, but in the end, many of them said they couldn't adopt a book that had the look of Trenholm because it would mean their students wouldn't buy it or read it.
The plan for the seventh edition of Trenholm is not only to update the content thoroughly but also to revise the look and feel to compete directly with the new face of the higher-level interpersonal niche. This includes increasing the trim size to 8 x 10 (the standard for this market), going 4-color, adding new photos, and streamlining the staid fine art program of previous editions.
