An Author's Career Moves in Mysterious Ways

In a thought-provoking blog entry titled How the Biz Can Drive You Crazy, author Tess Gerritsen writes:

“...no matter how good a book may be, no matter how much effort a publisher puts behind that book, it can still fail. Success involves many random factors that are completely out of our control….All I can do is write the best book I’m capable of and trust my publisher to do its job right…After that, the book either sinks or swims. And there’s not a hell of a lot I can do to change it.”

I’m learning the truth of this. Reviewers praised my second children’s novel, LOOKING FOR BAPU, and I promoted the heck out of the book, but despite my efforts, hardcover sales were not fabulous. Random House even delayed publishing the paperback, as release of the softcover often puts the more expensive hardcover out of print.

I could not force the book up the bestseller charts. I had no choice but to move forward and begin writing my next manuscript.

Then a few serendipitous events occurred, none of which I could not control. LOOKING FOR BAPU was nominated for two state awards—Hawaii’s NeNe Award and Washington’s 2009 Sasquatch Reading Award. The book was also selected for King County Library System’s 2009 Global Reading Challenge, a cooperative effort between King County Library System and local public school districts. In a Battle of the Books style program, 4th and 5th graders across the county work together in teams, competing with other schools to answer questions about the ten selected books. The goal is to encourage students to engage in teamwork while reading “some of the best in children’s literature.” This year, King County Library System expects to host “9 school districts, 58 schools, and 1,300 students.”

Seattle Public Library also picked LOOKING FOR BAPU for its 2009 Global Reading Challenge involving 40 schools, 320 teams and 2,240 students. But wait, there's more! LOOKING FOR BAPU is also one of six books chosen for Fraser Valley Regional Library’s 2008-2009 Reading Link Challenge, which will see the “greatest participation in history: 2079 children are registered to form 297 teams from 80 schools in 12 school districts.” (Learn more about the programs by clicking on the links.)

As you can imagine, sales increased for LOOKING FOR BAPU. The book came out in paperback in August 2008 and has already gone back for a reprint. Who would have guessed?

Perhaps my promotion efforts helped. Or maybe those wise and wonderful teachers, librarians and students found the book on their own. Either way, I’m deeply grateful to all my readers.

Here’s more testimony to the influence of external factors on an author’s career: three distributors have re-ordered my novels for adults. Both books – IMAGINARY MEN and INVISIBLE LIVES – have also gone back for reprints. Droemer-Knaur will release INVISIBLE LIVES as DER HOCHZEITSSARI in Germany in 2009, and Simon & Schuster has just sold the German rights for IMAGINARY MEN to Droemer-Knaur as well. I never could’ve predicted these serendipitous developments, but I’m delighted.