Dan Brown Tahiti in 1993, Brown read Sidney Sheldon's novel "The Doomsday Conspiracy", and was inspired to become a writer of thrillers. He started work on "Digital Fortress", setting much of it in Seville, where he had studied in 1985. He also co-wrote a humor book with his wife, "187 Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman", under the pseudonym "Danielle Brown". The book's author profile reads, "Danielle Brown currently lives in New England: teaching school, writing books, and avoiding men." The copyright is attributed to Brown. In 1996 Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. "Digital
Debut novel sales are anticipated, the advance can be larger. For an example of an unusually high advance: in 2013, the highly anticipated "City on Fire" by Garth Risk Hallberg captured the attention of ten publishers who started a bidding war that ended with Knopf buying the rights to the book for 2 million dollars. The book's film production rights were purchased soon after by producer Scott Rudin. For similar reasons that advances are frequently not very large—novels frequently don't sell well until the author gains a literary reputation. There are exceptions, however; YouTube star Zoella published her debut novel "Girl Online"