In a response to yesterday’s item about the 2nd annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, self-styled publishing industry rebel and frequent GalleyCat commenter Cliff Burns snidely asked, “Quick question: What happened to LAST YEAR’s winner of this stupid contest? Exactly…”
Well, apart from getting a $25,000 book contract from Putnam, Bill Loehfelm saw Fresh Kills published last summer, earning great praise not just from fellow thriller writer John Sandford but mainstream literary sensation Elizabeth Gilbert—and, according to Nielsen Bookscan, Fresh Kills sold 5,000 copies in hardcover. (Note: Nielsen Bookscan accounts for roughly 75 percent of the bookselling market.)
5,000 may not seem like a very big number when compared to huge bestsellers—but, last fall, we learned that 4,000-7,000 hardcover sales is a benchmark of success for most literary novels (and certainly debuts by previously unknown authors). An even more clear indicator of Loehfelm’s success, though, might be seen in the fact that Putnam signed up a second novel, Bloodroot, which they plan to publish late this summer, shortly after the paperback release of Fresh Kills.
Sure, the whole “Breakthrough” contest is arguably, as Michael Cader told NPR last year, “a thinly veiled way of supporting Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary.” But, for one person anyway, it appears to have worked. Being dismissive about Bill Loehfelm’s success doesn’t come off as publishing-savvy… just bitter.
