“When I pitched ‘One True Loves’ to my editor at the time, I said, ‘I’ve got this one idea, which is Castaway from Helen Hunt’s point of view, and I have this other idea about an actress.’ She was like, ‘Books about actresses don’t do great, so unless it’s really calling to you, I would advise you do the other one.’ I was like, ‘If people won’t be interested in this actress thing, then maybe I don’t want to do it.’” When the idea for “ The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” first came to her, she approached her editor, who discouraged the idea. They were things that were much more slice-of-life.” My books at that time were really heartfelt, grounded, and low concept. I remember having conversations of like, ‘What do I need to do to get bigger?’ There were a lot of factors at play genre and gender. My editor at Simon & Schuster at the time, I give her a lot of credit because the books weren’t outselling anybody, but she stuck with me, and so my readership grew with each book.”Įven so, Reid acknowledges, “I was definitely midlist. While other debut authors with sluggish sales might not get a second chance, Reid says she was fortunate to have signed a two-book deal, “which gave me a second shot at bat and so I released the next one. When it came out, my publisher happened to be in a direct conflict with Barnes & Noble, so my book wasn’t in any Barnes & Nobles.” “Everybody did their best,” she says as a rooster crows in the distance. Reid explains that her 2013 debut novel, “ Forever, Interrupted,” was released as a trade paperback, a format that doesn’t always get the support it needs to find an audience.

Carrie soto is back taylor jenkins reid