mediabistro.com interviewed bestselling science journalist Mary Roach about how she’s become so successful writing books on death, ghosts, and sex—and she says a lot of it has to do with that first book, Stiff:
“It’s a subject that people are inherently fascinated by, because everybody dies. Also, it’s a taboo subject… I think the combination of death and humor was so unexpected that it got people talking. And I think for a first book to succeed, word-of-mouth is critical.”
Roach admits that “nobody showed up at my readings” when the book first came out; the buzz didn’t really kick in until months later. And that’s one reason why Roach accepts interview requests from just about any blog that asks, along with a sense of karma: “For the most part, if somebody approaches me and says, ‘I’d like to interview you,’ who am I to say no, when I spend all my days going, ‘Hello, you don’t know me. I’d like to ask you some questions. Do you have a little time?””
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