The Accidental Bestseller
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Home<br>> Children's<br>> Book News
The Accidental Bestseller
Editors tell us the stories behind their sleeper hits
By Sue Corbett
Nov 24, 2014
Some books arrive labeled “can’t miss,” or have such a hefty advance that publishers do everything they can to assure that they won’t miss. But what about the sleepers? Those books that worked their way through the publishing pipeline quietly, launch with little buzz, and somehow find their way to bestseller lists anyway? Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie had been abandoned unread in a box when an editor went on maternity leave and decided not to return. Dusted off and published by her replacement, it has sold 8.8 million copies. Jeff Kinney’s now international bestseller Diary of a Wimpy Kid initially met resistance at Abrams, where some wondered whether kids would buy a book that they could already read for free online at the Poptropica site. Random House acquired Wonder by R.J. Palacio, a first novel published under a pseudonym, for a modest advance. Even those with the highest hopes for that book didn’t dream it would sell two million copies, spend 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and spawn a movement about the importance of being kind.<br>Nobody loves a good story more than an editor, so we asked editors to tell us how they came to publish their favorite buzzless bestsellers.<br>The Princess Diaries<br>by Meg Cabot<br>(HarperCollins, 2000)
In 1998, my boss forwarded me a voicemail from an agent we didn’t know and asked me to follow up on it. Which is what assistant editors do, of course. I read the manuscript immediately. I loved it. Here was a girl who felt real and relatable and insecure, surrounded by a cast of hilarious, fully realized characters. The writing was perfect. With all my vast 20 months of publishing experience, I knew it was special. It wasn’t a quiet book or a book that would easily take awards. There were no sympathetic librarians depicted or heroism in the face of cruel circumstances. There was a dramatic ice cream cone spill and a makeover, though.<br>We published it a year and a half later, with little else but an iconic, hot­­-pink jacket, and it became the little book that could. I would arrive at work in the morning and log on to the sales database to check the numbers. Up, up they went. A small initial print run with a modest<br>reorder the second month. Then a less modest reorder the third month. Then more the fourth month. Maybe it was the fantastic jacket. Maybe it was the word “princess.” Maybe it was the most fun read ever. Who knows exactly why it caught on, but it did. It was thrilling. By the time the movie was released a year later, the book was already a hit. I didn’t realize at the time how rare and magical a publishing event this was, but I also think my inexperience allowed me to see the beauty and possibility in Meg’s story and not misunderstand or dismiss it. —Abigail McAden<br>● The Princess Diaries was McAden’s first acquisition, bought for an $8,000 advance when she was a 25-year-old assistant editor. The series has sold more than five million copies.
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site<br>by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld<br>(Chronicle, 2011)
I found Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site buried in our bin of unsolicited manuscripts and I was immediately taken with the concept, the sweetness of the text, and the pitch-perfect title (which never changed). I also responded to the author’s story about how the book came to be. In her cover letter, she described a nighttime routine in which she helped her sons settle down by saying good night to all the things they loved—which, for one of her boys, always included trucks. I thought this was a brilliant approach to bedtime and could see how it would benefit moms and dads of truck-obsessed kids everywhere.<br>My second thought, though, was that the concept of a bedtime book about trucks was so natural and smart, that a similar book must exist already. I jumped online, but happily found no books that could come close to competing. I called Sherri to share my enthusiasm and make sure she hadn’t sold the book elsewhere. She was lovely to talk to—so excited about the opportunity and ready to collaborate and work hard. Now I didn’t just want to work on the book, I wanted the opportunity to work with this delightful and talented debut author. I took the manuscript to our acquisitions meeting with no doubt that it would pass—which it did, quite quickly and easily. Soon after, the designer, Amelia May Mack, and I were lucky enough to find the perfect illustrator in Tom Lichtenheld. I had the chance to see the book through from acquisition to publication, but I was...