Ninc Newsletter - My First Time

My First Time

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An Anecdotal History of Authors' First Time Hitting the New York Times Bestseller List

Collected by CATHERINE COULTER

There are certain moments in our lives that we will never ever forget until we pass on to the hereafter, moments so sharp they're like photographs that will never fade. Making the New York Times Bestseller List for the first time is one of them. It's right up there with actually holding your first novel for the very first time.

For me it was August 4, 1988 at about 7:30 a.m. when Hilary Ross, my editor at Penguin, called to tell me that Moonspun Magic had hit the Times. Click, the photo was snapped. I yelled, "Why are you doing this to me?" going on and on disbeliving until she managed to shout over me that it was true and she had witnesses. All in all, it was pretty decent entertainment for many of the folk at Penguin who were on the speaker phone listening in.

My husband and I celebrated with some very expensive champagne and sent another kind of champagne to Penguin to thank everyone. CC

Nelson DeMille:

"There it was, a Thursday in March of 1987, and in this business that's sweepstakes morning. At about 9:15 a.m., the phone rang. It all came together. I, Nelson DeMille, had made the New York Times bestseller list for my novel Word of Honor in the number ten paperback position. I was an offical New York Times best-selling author. I couldn't wait to tell someone, anyone. I decided to call my fiancee.

"The phone rang another ten times that morning as friends and colleagues called to congratulate me. I was on cloud nine. Better yet, I was on The List.

"All my books since have made the Times list in hardcover and paperback, but as with sex, nothing can compare with the First Time."

Nora Roberts:

"The first book of mine to hit the NY Times was Genuine Lies in '91. This came after one of those basic tours from hell where I did like ten cities in ten days. The book didn't hit the first week or so on sale and my editor at Bantam wasn't too hopeful.

"Once I was home again I put it aside. You can't function and certainly can't write with the Times list preying on your mind.

"I got the call on Thursday morning when I was in the shower. I happen to have a phone in the bathroom, which we call the potty line. I answered it, dripping wet, and heard lots of screaming and excitement on the line.

"It was the best time I have had in my bathroom. I remember feeling thrilled and dazzled, but mostly relieved. Thank God that was done. Even if I never hit again, I could have NYTBSA engraved on my tombstone. I'm putting that in my will."

Jack Higgins:

"Before writing The Eagle Has Landed I had somethign like 25 novels published under different names without ever doing anything remarkable.

"I decided that the time had come to do something drastic and came up with the idea of a German plot in 1945 in which German paratroopers disguised as Poles in the British forces would drop into England to kidnap or shoot Winston Churchill. The research took many, many months. My New York publishers were not happy, and the big man at Collins in London positively hated the idea. You've got a bunch of Nazis trying to kill Winston Churchill, he said. Where are your heroes?

The public will never go for it. I tried to explain that I was interested NOT in the Nazis but in all the ordinary decent guys who found themselves on the wrong side but still had to do the job. Good guys fighting for a rotten cause. Nobody seemed to understand.

"I was depressed but carried on. When Holt read it in America they went crazy. They brought the book out first and in 1975 the miracle happened. Number One in ALL the American lists. The experience was repeated in the UK. It started a new departure in the war novel in which EVERYONE started writing about good Germans. I never looked back. It taught me one thing. NEVER, but never listen to publishers."

Ann Maxwell:

"I picked up the phone one Wednesday night in 1992 and discovered Denis Farina of Avon on the other end. As it was really late for him to be working-about 11:00 p.m. in New York-I was puzzled. When Denis told me Only You had made the NYT list, I was floored.

"I didn't believe it. June and July were particularly savage months that year, with about 20+ previous NYT bestsellers contending for the 15 slots. I wasn't Avon's superlead; and my print run was hardly hearty.

"There is such a thing as luck.

"So Denis got to hold the line while Evan congratulated me. Actually, I think we hung up somewhere among the congratulations. At least I hope we did."

Dick Francis:

"It's a terrible thing to say, I don't rightly remember how I heard that one of my novels was actually one of the New York Times's Best Seller List's chosen few. I believe it was Whip Hand and I also believe that someone told me about it. Consequently, I went out and bought the newspaper, and there it was for all to see.

"Whip Hand was, in fact, the last of my novels to be published by Harper & Row. I had severed my connection with said firm before the date of its publication. Having done this I suppose no member of the staff thought it worthwhile notifying me of the honor it duly received.

"Since joining G.P. Putnam's Sons, all of my novels have found their way onto the exalted list. And long may they continue to be so honored!"

Kathryn Lynn Davis:

"It happened in January of 1990. I don't think I screamed aloud when I discovered that the paperback of Too Deep for Tears was #11 on the New York Times Bestseller list, but I did ask my agent to repeat the news several times, in case I'd heard wrong or was otherwise delusional.

"Just before Christmas my husband had bought a very expensive, very beautiful bottle of champagne 'just in case we have something or other to celebrate sometime soon.' He was trying to avoid being cursed by expressing the thought aloud. That night we opened that champagne with several of our close friends. I still own the bottle and glance at it often, as a reminder of what my agent said when she finally got the good news through my dazed brain. 'No matter what happens from now on, you'll always be a New York Times best-selling author.' If I forget it, I look at my bottle with the silver crest and it helps me to remember, even though the bubbles have long since disappeared."

Linda Howard:

"I found out Dream Man was on the New York Times Bestseller list on Thursday morning, May 18, at 8:30 a.m., 1995. I had the mother of all infections, and the doctor had prescribed heavy duty drugs, one of which had the charming side effect of 'psychotic episodes.' Anyway, there I was. Alone, deathly ill. (My husband wouldn't be home for three more days.) The phone rang, and it was Leslie Wainger, my editor at Silhouette. She didn't even say hello. She said, 'Dream Man is on the Times list.'

"I'm definitely left-brained and a psychotic episode was a possibility. I didn't squeal or jump with joy. I asked, 'The New York Times?'

" 'No, the Norfolk, Connecticut Times,' Leslie replied with noticeable sarcasm.

"I got on the phone to spread the news. No one was home. No one. The bug man arrived to spray the house. He congratulated me, collected his check, and left. I had errands to run so I left.

I was alone, driving around, all day long. To celebrate, I had my Explorer washed.

"When I finally got home, the answering machine was full of messages and the phone never stopped ringing for the next ten hours."

John Grisham:

"The Firm" was published on March 1, 1991, and eleven days later I was sitting in my locak bookstore, Square Books, sipping cappuccino and gossiping with Richard Howarth, the proprietor. Present also was the district sales representative for Doubleday, and we were having a pleasant visit discussing the early success of The Firm. The phone next to the coffee pot rang, and the cashier said it was for me. My wife, Renee, was calling to tell me that my editor in New York had just called with the wonderful news that The Firm would debut on the New York Times list, at #12, on March 17, 1991. A bottle of champagne was located somewhere from under the counter, and we had a wonderful celebration."

Kathleen Woodiwiss:

"I do vividly recall when my second novel, The Wolf and the Dove, made it as a mass market paperback to number two spot on the New York Times Bestseller List in April, 1974 because of an argument that broke out between my then husband and his sister, both of whom had been tracking all the lists. My husband told her that Avon called to tell us I had made the Times. She said no. (She'd been tracking a different list.) Now, in the Woodiwiss family, when you're wrong, you're going to be told flat-out by someone or another, and so my 'first time' was initiated in with a quarrel over who was right and who was wrong.

"Neither one gave ground that evening, and it was only after we bought the NYT that the argument was put to rest. I think."

Jonathan Kellerman:

"My first book on The List was--remarkably--my first novel, When the Bough Breaks. My main reaction was astonishment because Bough had not been bought or marketed as a 'big book.' Quite the contrary: my advance amounted to three bucks an hour.

"Also I'd worked for thirteen years without a penny of remuneration trying to break in--a failed writer with a very good day job. And my two previous psychology books were earning me 15-cent royalty checks, so I harbored no illusions about success as a writer. I did love writing, however, and in the finest tradition of obsessive-compulsiveness, just kept going. And going. The human battery-rabbit.

"The entire process of 'making the list' and staying there for a few weeks was surprising--to my publishers as well as to me--and surreal. Looking back, my only explanation is word-of-mouth. People picking the book up and telling their friends. God bless the readers. I vowed right then never to cheat them and I do my damnedest to stick to that resolution."

Jayne Ann Krentz:

"The year was 1990 and the book was Surrender. What stands out most clearly in my mind is the case of champagne that my agent, Steve Axelrod, sent to celebrate the occasion of my first appearance on the NYT. An entire case. No one had ever sent me an entire case of anything before in my life. Right away I figured out that hitting the NYT was a GOOD THING."

LaVyrle Spencer:

"My editor, Damaris Rowland, called me that morning of March 5, 1987. I was wholly unprepared. I had no idea that The Gamble was already in stores or that it was possible to mount the number of sales necessary for the big list in less than a week.

"I remember shouting, 'Oh, my God,' and then I began bawling like a fool. I spent the morning calling everyone I knew. At noon I fulfilled a promise to sign books at the high school, so a school lunch room was my first celebration. Later that month I threw the biggest party of my life.

The cake was decorated like the cover of The Gamble, with a cluster of violets that had won me my first appearance on the Times list at number 8.

"It was Damaris Rowland's first Times bestseller, too, and she recalls hanging up after telling me and running up and down the Berkley halls screaming the news. She said, 'It was a big deal, LaVyrle. It was a really big deal at Berkley.'"

Iris Johansen:

"I realize that most people say the first New York Times is unexpected. This is true. No matter how often our publishers assure us that this is the book to make it, the list remains an enigma, a beacon, a mirage. We hope, but we can't quite believe it will happen.

"That's why I slept very soundly on the night of reckoning--well, at least until 4:30 in the morning when the phone rang. It was Nita Taublib, my editor, jubilant, walking on air. She had not slept soundly. She'd called the Times at 11:00 o'clock, 1:30, and finally at 4:30 when she finally got the new list. The Beloved Scoundrel would appear on the NYTBL on January 30, 1994.

"She accused me of already knowing about the list because I was too calm. I wasn't calm, I was stunned. A bolt of lightning does that to you. I called the Times and heard it myself. The list 'you have to make' had been made.

"I didn't go back to sleep."

Michael Palmer:

' "Three weeks out, when Natural Causes wasn't on any lists any more, well after my publishers and I had given up hope, I got THE CALL from my editor. She left the message on my machine as I was visiting with my shrink at the time. 'Michael,' she said, 'you're not going to believe this, but...'

"I immediately recalled the riddle we were taught early on in medical school:

"Q: What do you call the student who graduates last in his class from The Medical College of East Podunk?

"A: Doctor.

"I knew from the moment of that phone call on, regardless of whether or not I ever made the list again, I was going to be referred to by my publishers as 'Author of the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller Natural Causes'--even if my publishers ended up being the Medical College of East Podunk Press."

Virginia Henley:

"The first time I made the NYT was January 1994 and the book was Seduced. When my editor from Dell called she said, 'Are you sitting down?' When I replied in the affirmative she told me I had made the New York Times. I shouted to my husband, 'Quick, get out the ladder!' In spite of bad bronchities, I climed to the roof and shouted the news to the world at the time of my voice. There is no feeling like it. I had to admit I felt omnipotent.

"When I was on for the second week, I went a little crazy and ran out and bought a house on the water with a swimming pool. When I wasn't on the third week I slid down the such a low, I almost had a nervous breakdown wondering how I was going to pay for the house I had just bought."

Phillip Margolin:

"Gone, But Not Forgotten was published in October, 1993, and I went on tour on October 15. On Thursday, October 21, 1993, I was staying in the Maclowe Hotel in New York with my wife Doreen. After I got up, I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, Doreen told me that David Gemert, my editor at Doubleday, had phoned and wanted me to return the call as soon as possible. I dried off and called David back. He told me that Gone, But Not Forgotten was going to debut on the New York Times Bestseller List. I cannot remember my exact reaction after hanging up the phone, but it was probably something that was totally unsuave.

"When the list came out a week or so later, I remember thinking that it looked like a spoof of the Times list. There was John Grisham, Stephen King, Danielle Steel and, as a joke, one of my friends had gotten a printer to insert my name. To tell the truth, it still feels that way every time I see one of my books on the list."

Rebecca Brandewyne:

"The first time I made the NYT list was in 1984, for my fifth book, And Gold Was Ours. My publisher notified me it had made the list. It stayed on for three weeks.

It felt great, and I celebrated with a bottle of Dom Perignon.

"None of this meant as much to me as when my very first book No Gentle Love went all the way to #1 on the wholesale bestseller list. Heady stuff for a young, totally unknown author!"

Steve Martini:

Compelling Evidence was out in paperback in 1992. It didn't hit the list until it had been out four weeks, certainly a record in waiting. I had nearly given up but my editor said to be patient. When I didn't hear that Thursday, I knew it was over. What happened was that my editor thought that my publisher had called me and vice versa. I spent the entire weekend considering slashing my wrists. Then, early Monday morning, my agent called and said, 'Isn't it great?'

"'Huh?' I asked. Then he told me the news. I'd hit the NYT list. I had gone from Thursday to Monday morning not knowing, feeling so low I could have passed for a slug.

"I'll tell you, it was like a prisoner getting a reprieve from the gas chamber. We had a big celebration and I didn't even mind paying for all my friends who came out to dinner."

Linda Lael Miller:

"My first appearance on the Times list was in August of 1992, when Daniel's Bride came in at #9. One of my editors called me at six in the morning and said, 'If I were you, I'd have champagne for breakfast.'

"And that was the beginning of a glorious day. The living room filled up with flowers and people called from all over to congratulate me. To celebrate, I bought myself three gold bracelets--one for each week I managed to stay on."

Johanna Lindsey:

"OK, first time was in 1977, my first book, Captive Bride. I was 25 years old and hardly knew what the NYT list was. I believe Avon called me when Bride made it. They were incredibly excited about it. Paperbacks come and go and are never seen again, etc., so this was phenomenal stuff, and their excitement was catching. I was amazed, actually.

"I hadn't ever meant to write a book, that first book just happened, and I figured that was the only one I had in me--well, that's what I thought at the time--and for it to do soe well, it was sort of like a Cinderella thing. I can't remember if I did anything in celebration. I probably just sat down and shook my head in wonder."

Clive Cussler:

"I recall the first time I read my name up in lights on the New York Times Bestseller List very well. The book was Raise the Titanic and it jumped on in fourth place. The clouds parted, the sun burst through, there came the sounds of harp music, trumpets and a drum roll.

"My glee was short-lived. I then read an accompanying review that said, 'If good books received roses and bad books skunks, Cussler's Raise the Titanic would receive four skunks.'

"Instead of a conquering hero, I felt like Tom the cat after Jerry the mouse hits him over the head with a big mallet. I slowly cracked and crumbled into dust."

Anne McCaffrey:

"To my total astonishment, I achieved my goal of making the New York Times Bestseller list in August, 1978 with The White Dragon. As luck would have it, the book hit the August best seller list just when the New York Times was out on strike. I was sent tearsheets of the listing, but I never had a copy of those editions of the strike-dead papers. But no matter, I was the first unabashed writer of science fiction to make the list and the first woman science fiction writer.

"Getting on the Best Seller list is a double-edged victory; you're blissful at making it and scared stiff that this is the only book you'll ever write that does!"

Sandra Brown:

"It was Wednesday, May 23, 1990. I called home from my car phone and spoke to my daughter who told me how her brother was, how school was, how everything at home was, how the dog was, etc. She elaborated. As an afterthought, she said, 'Oh, Mom, a man named Larry Kir-Kirsh-something called you, but he wouldn't leave a message.' Larry Kirschbaum, President and CEO of Warner Books, called me at home?

I drove to my husband's business, my palms so slick with sweat I could hardly steer. I called Larry from Michael's desk. May 23rd was his birthday. He said this was the best present he could hope for. Michael, grinning like a possum, came in with a bouquet of eight long-stemmed red roses, as Mirror Image appeared at #8 on the list.

"Everything from that point is a blur. I was on the phone for about an hour and a half. It takes a while to tell the whole world.

"Two days later, Michael told me to dress formally for a special evening. He had chartered a Learjet to fly us and several friends to Houston for dinner.

"It was, quite literally, a fantasy come true."

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