A matter of perspective

[ksmith]

Paging through this month's--well, October's--VANITY FAIR, the one with a topless Paris Hilton on the cover. Found an article entitled The New Establishment 2005, and saw that Dan Brown, author of the ubiquitous DaVinci Code, is ranked number 46. Seems that prior to taking the book world by storm, he was considered "a lower-midlist thriller writer" who had "reportedly agreed to write The DaVinci Code and his next book for $400,000 combined."

Is $400,000 a typical advance for two books by a lower-midlist thriller writer? If so, how can I become a lower-midlist thriller writer, please?

Comments

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

Posted by kaygo on 2005.09.17 at 19:59
Snicker. Cape Cod is in eastern Massachusetts. Eastern Massachusting housing prices are very bad jokes--if you don't already have a house in Eastern Massachusetts, rotsaruck being able to afford to buy one!

I knew the prices were through the roof, which was why I used it as an example. I used to have a manager who would tease me about writing that Big Book and moving to Cape Cod, where I'd wear sunhats, big sunglasses, and artistic earrings and foster my Young Protege (tm). Both he and his wife came from Money, though--not W-level Money, but maybe enough to edge into Town & Country. In any event, they probably could have afforded a cottage, but for the fact that gingerbread was so not their style.

Not my style either, come to that. Former Manager grew up in the Seattle area, I *think* on the San Juan Islands. I like that area a lot.

Ah, but a Methodist originally retreat on Martha's Vineyard is part of an island, as opposed to Cape Cod, it's "Cape Code and the Islands" and the they're separate mindspaces! Cape Cod traditional houses typically are clapboarded or had cedar shingles, with the clapboard houses painted, and the cedar shingled houses and cottages, weathered bare wood--either it started bare, or the weather stripped the paint off. There's a paucity, if any, of gingerbread, and in the shingles houses tend toward being rustic cottages, with pine interiors.