The NY Observer’s Sheelah Kolhatkar is mad as hell and she’s not going to take it anymore. How dare Lauren Weisberger reap so much money for a novel she hasn’t even written yet? (A cool $1 million for the follow-up to the just-released EVERYONE WORTH KNOWING.) How dare she get so much attention for what’s essentially a single-girl-in-NYC novel?
Of course, Simon & Schuster’s David Rosenthal (Weisberger’s publisher) tries to justify their commitment to Weisberger’s literary career:
“I think it’s a good milieu,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “I think the nightlife scene in New York is of great interest to many people–the velvet ropes and so on. I think it’s a hoot. And she wants a boyfriend.”
And, Mr. Rosenthal added, “Very few people write a first novel that has the commercial success that Prada did.”
Indeed. The Devil Wears Prada, which was published by Doubleday in 2003, spent six months on the best-seller list. Simon and Schuster’s aggressive move for her second and third books signals either a deep faith in Ms. Weisberger’s abilities or a deep faith in the lasting power of The Devil Wears Prada.
“We believe in this girl,” Mr. Rosenthal said.
Like many others, I rather enjoyed reading PRADA when it was first published. It was a fun window into the world of Wintour, fictionalized or otherwise. But like many, I had my doubts that Weisberger would have a career beyond this particular novel. Then again, one only has to cast their crystal balls back almost fifty years to another single-girl-in-NYC novel, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, which offered a searing, heartbreaking look at the publishing industry as seen through the eyes of Rona Jaffe, then twenty-six. And now in her 70s, she’s not only still kicking, she’s still writing. Did people feel the same way about Jaffe back then? And should we color ourselves surprised if, fifty-odd years from now, Weisberger grows up to skewer older-ladies-in-NYC or whatever it is she feels like writing?
Of course, the publishing world’s all about the now, not the then, but it never hurts to find historical precedent where there’s one to be found…