Friday, October 30, 2009

How Do You Spell Success?

According to The Chicago Tribune article Irish author Derek Landy trying to get his skeleton-detective hero into Americans' skulls (Is that really a title or the entire article?), the Skullduggery Pleasant books are nearly Twilight/Harry Potter successful in England. Not so much here in the United States.

I wish the article had explained what it meant by "haven't caught on" here. What kind of sales are we talking about? Because I've heard of Skullduggery a lot on-line. It's a teen nominee for Connecticut's Nutmeg Award, which suggests a certain amount of acceptance by the gatekeepers who run that show.

Is the book considered not to have "caught on" because it isn't the kind of hit it is in England? Is it just moderately successful here?


Anonymous said...

We love these books. But I definitely haven't talked to too many people who have read them. Good to hear there are more coming!

Gail Gauthier said...

I wonder if big sales in America are needed anymore to make a book successful. Sure, they'll make a book more successful, and who objects to making more money? But I suspect many foreign authors are making comfortable livings without us.