So I was reading the Huffington Post the other day. I always read the Books section and I came across an article about a $2.5 million dollar advance paid by Sonny Mehta from the Alfred Knopf publishing house. Now while the advance was enough to blow me away, you won't believe what they paid for. On the strength of a writer's four page proposal, this advance was paid.
A FOUR PAGE PROPOSAL!
The book has not even been written! If you believe the article, and I really have no reason not to, it's the Huffington Goddamn Post, there was no outline, no other pages, no chapters, no nothing. And this was a work of fiction. The author is Kiran Desai, whose second book was The Inheritance of Loss, the Booker Prize for 2006. Clearly, they expect the same for this next book, to be called The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.
I don't know whether to be bouyed or deflated by this news. Should I be happy and think, Oh, this could happen for me? Or should I think, ARE YOU SERIOUSLY KIDDING ME? and HOW IN THE HELL DO I COMPETE WITH THAT?
I prefer the former.
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