When “Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America” was released last September, sales were sluggish and author Helen Thorpe worried about the future of her nonfiction book about immigration and identity.
Two months later, she found an unexpected sales bump–defying publishing expectations with her late-blooming book. She explained why in a candid interview with GalleyCat about the snowball effect of a good book review: “A lovely review appeared in the November issue of O Magazine and sparked more widespread interest,” she explained.
“In December, “Just Like Us” was named one of the best books of the year by Washington Post, as well as New West, and we had a big rush of sales right around the holidays. Suddenly Amazon ran out of books, and eventually the publisher did too. Then the New Yorker ran a very positive review, and so did the Atlantic, which created even more demand, and we wound up with a significant number of back orders. We are reprinting to fill those orders right now. It’s exciting to watch the book get a second wind.”
After the jump, Thorpe explained why the story might matter even more in upcoming months.
She concluded: “The timing is interesting because the Obama Administration has announced that it wants to tackle immigration reform at the beginning of this year. Congressman Luis Gutierrez introduced a new bill on the subject at the end of last year, and it’s likely that other bills will be introduced soon. That means we could be entering another moment when immigration dominates headlines again. If elected officials start talking seriously about fixing our broken immigration system, the topic could assume a new urgency, and perhaps more readers will be drawn to pick up a book that discusses the issue in human, personal terms.”