Has this ever happened before?

Question

Let's say --- an author publishes a book,

that doesn't get a whole lot of sales.

then.....let's say five, six, eight years later....they get an agent, or some kind of breakthrough in marketing, and the book catches on, and is a big hit.....

even though it's been a few years since it was published.

Has that ever happened before?  in history?

any precedent for that?

Answer 1

Yes usually when they have a later book that's successful which generates interest in their earlier works.

Answer 2

Weasel MC

Dan Brown did not swear in court that he had never heard of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" - he said it was one of the books he had used in his research.

The court ruled that if "The Holy Blood etc" was history then Brown was making a legitimate use of the material.

Answer 3

When books enjoy great success years after publication it is usually because the author has become famous since then....such as when Stephen King admitted he previously published under the name "Richard Bachman"... or when radio personality Don Imus marketed his 1981 novel after his New York morning show went national in the 1990s...

...or when recommended by a famous person, like Oprah Winfrey....

Answer 4

Agents don't represent books that are already published. Nothing the shiny new agent does is going to impact how much the publisher markets the book they already published that didn't sell very well.

However, an agent might get the author a really sweet deal on her new book, and if it's a hit, then sales of the previous book will increase, sometimes dramatically.

It's fairly common for an author's backlist--books already published and still available--to spike a little with every new book that comes out. So if you have a massive backlist, say thirty or forty books, and each gets a little sales bump when your new book crops, it serves your career well.

Answer 5

Michael Baigent saw a huge jump in sales,  when Dan Brown totally ripped off his 20 year old book,  "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"  and turned it into  "The Da Vinci Code". 

Brown denied it, and a judge ruled in his favor.....screwing Baigent out of the royalties  Brown should have paid him,  which would have been in the millions. 

The name of Browns "Grail Scholar" in his story.......was named TEABING. 

3 guess what TEABING is an anagram for. ??

BAIGENT........the book Brown swore in court he never heard of. 

Answer 6

The original publisher has rights till the contract expires. A 'few years' isn't long enough unless the contract specified first printing only.