How to make a million with a non-bestseller

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 25

How to make a million with a non-bestseller

The first novel by an unknown author called Stephen Sheppard is said to have earned $1 million before a single copy appeared in a bookshop. Not surprisingly, Sheppard became an instant tax exile and celebrity. But his book, "The Four Hundred,” which is based on the true story of four Americans who tried to defraud the Bank of England in the 1870 s, is rather less celebrated. Indeed, it shows every sign of being the best seller that never was. For example, W. H. Smith has reported that “The Four Hundred” was “slow selling.” Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford had sold 14 copies, Heffers of Cambridge 17, Sherratt and Hughes of Manchester 10, and Hudson’s of Birmingham only three. In London, Foyles had sold only 40 copies since its publication two months ago. At Hatchards, in Piccadilly, public response was said to have been poor. The publishers, Seeker and Warburg, have spent $22,000 publicising the book, which they describe as “the one-million-pound novel.” Sheppard was featured in the first issue of “Now.” magazine as a potential rival to Frederick Forsyth, and the "Daily Mail” devoted a whole

page to him and “The Four Hundred.” Yet an assistant in Foyles’ fiction department asked “What did you say it was called? .. . No, sorry, I’ve never heard of it. Who is the author?” How can this be? The managing director of Hatchards, Peter Giddy, gave a simple answer: “It’s an absolutely dreadful book. I was sent a copy before publication but gave up trying to read it at about page 90.” Giddy’s view cannot be compared with that of the

critics, as “The Four Hundred” has been largely ignored by national newspapers and literary magazines. Only the “Guardian” found space for a brief and indifferent review, while the magazine, “Newsagent and Bookshop” commented that the “standard of writing was not high,” though the work as a whole was "mildly enjoyable.” Sheppard’s prose is certainly different, to put it charitably. Unconcerned with niceties such as proper sentence construction, he favours the dash over any other form of punc-

tuation. This has the effect of making parts of the book unintelligible. Thus, in spite of the assertion of the “Daily Mail” that "the book is charging around bestseller lists with the same vigour that its author attacks a life he now decorates with brand names like RollsRoyce and Cartier,” it seems that "The Four Hundred” is little more than a brilliantly successful “hype” — the publishing term for the creation of interest in a “property” through rumour

and gossip. Far from charging around bestseller lists, it appeared at number three in the "Sunday Times” list on October 21, dropping on successive weeks to positions six and nine, before disappearing altogether. And it has yet to appear in an American “top ten” although Summit Books were happy to pay $75,000 for the United States rights. It is widely accepted that the man who generated the hype was an American named Ed Victor, a successful library agent with a deep under-

standing of publishing psychology. After half an hour of reading Stephen Sheppard’s manuscript, Victor says, he believed he had “discovered a genius.” “It had this incredible beginning that just took me by the collar and shook me. I turned to my wife — and it really did happen like this — and said, ‘We just got rich’.” After considerable haggling, he persuaded Tom Rosenthal of Seekers to put up an advance of $60,000 — almost un-heard-of amount from a British publisher for a first novel. Seekers placed a print order for 70,000 copies, but it was the money that, created a stir, as Victor knew it would, in New York.

“Publishing is a business of buzz and chatter,” he says. “By the time I got to New York, there were six American publishers competing for the book.’’ Meanwhile Rosenthal had negotiated a deal with a book club and sold English paperback rights to Penguin for SIOO,OOO. By now, so much money was floating around the book that Hollywood became interested. “Hype begets hype, you see,” Victor explains. “I had inquiries from every major studio in the

world. I refused to let any of them see the book. The longer I refused to show them the manuscript, the crazier they became with curiosity.” In February this year, Victor let Warner Brothers have a peep. They offered a million dollars for the film rights, which Victor accepted. Quite clearly the book has appeal in certain quarters. Since then, he has been pulling in foreign rights sales — $44,000 from Italy, $38,000 from Sweden, $50,000 from France. Even if not another copy is sold, Ed Victor, Tom Rosenthal, and Stephen Sheppard have made a lot of money. Nevertheless, Rosenthal

indignantly denies that the book is not doing well, although he refused to give sales figures — “a delicate matter,” he explained. He did say, however, that profits from “The Four Hundred” would finance Seekers’ poetry publishing for at least the next two years. “It is essential for commercial success in publishing today to produce a block-buster every so often. There is no question that ‘The Four Hundred’ is a real bestseller and I am very pleased and proud to publish it.” As for the author, he has taken to fame and fortune as a duck to water. Aged 33 and a former bit-part actor, he is

rarely photographed without a glass in one hand and a cigar in the other, often with one of his Rolls-Royces in the background. He has been on a promotion tour in North America and expects to star in a $25 million film of the book to be made next year. If there is a smudge on his horizon, it is that Sheppard has perhaps not received the critical ac-

claim he believes he deserves. “I have a very strong feeling,” he said, “that the critics resent my success. It rankles a bit that the book has not been reviewed — people tell me it is because it is a thrilling adventure story. "But, my God, on that basis Dickens and Dostoevsky would have been ignored. They were storytellers, too.

By

RUSSELL MILLER,

“Sunday Times,” London