[See our previous editions of Authored, with writers Kamran Pasha, Shilpa Agarwal, Minal Hajratwala and Dilara Hafiz.]
Someone handed me an Uncorrected Proof of Tania James' "Atlas of Unknowns" a couple months ago. This would be the promotional, paperback version of the new book, with an additional yellow outer sleeve glued on. On that sleeve, in all-caps, it states: "Announced First Printing: 35,000"
Now, some of you may find that number unremarkable, but if it's more than wishful PR, it's quite a serious ambition for literary fiction. And it got me wondering just how this young Malayali-American talent--a New Yorker by way of Kentucky and Harvard--was going to achieve those kinds of sales, in this market.
It doesn't hurt to have the industrial heft of Alfred A. Knopf behind you, or blurbs by Nathan Englander, Junot Diaz and Ann Packer--or coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle or on NPR--but as Tania writes below, she's pursuing less glamorous routes as well: blogging, calling up Malayali organizations, producing a book trailer, and making the most of own's mother. Her tour is underway, with readings to come throughout Illinois, as well as in New York and Ohio.
But before the author holds forth, a bit of synopsis, not from the SF Chronicle's rave review--"one of the most exciting debut novels since Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth'"--but from Tania's website:
"In the wake of their mother’s mysterious death, Linno and Anju are
raised in Kerala by their father, Melvin, a reluctant Christian prone
to bouts of dyspepsia, and their grandmother, the superstitious and
strong-willed Ammachi. When Anju wins a scholarship to a prestigious
school in America, she seizes the opportunity, even though it means
betraying her sister. In New York, Anju is plunged into the elite world
of her Hindu American host family, led by a well-known television
personality and her fiendishly ambitious son, a Princeton drop out
determined to make a documentary about Anju’s life. But when Anju finds
herself ensnared by her own lies, she runs away..."
Selling "Atlas of Unknowns" - by Tania James
First, a disclosure: I am a terrible salesman. In high school, I briefly worked as a knife salesman for Cutco Knives, a stint that ended soon after I severed my own finger during the paring knife presentation and had to stop because I was bleeding all over the meat cleaver. I quit a few months later, after my only sale came from my mother.
I like to think of that self-inflicted wound as a revealing moment, a clear indication that I was not meant to be in sales. Years later, I went to grad school for creative writing, where I gained only the slightest understanding of the book publishing process. I had no idea what the process required from the writer once the book went out into the world; I always assumed that, by this time, the writer would simply float to the next project, happily untethered to the grit and grime of having to do the actual selling.
There are some writers for whom such happy oblivion is accurate, but for me, a debut novelist coming of age during a recession, trying to push a hardcover novel during a dismal period in publishing unlike any the industry has ever seen, the reality looks different.
It has now been a month since the release of my book, "Atlas of Unknowns." I've learned some things and have remained clueless about others. What follows here is a bit of grit and grime from the trenches, and some humble advice.
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