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So the track run, you think, means a great deal. I mean, is this why it is so hard to publish a first novel?

Well, sure. If this book had been by an established author, they would have accepted a book about India and an attempt to assassinate Gandhi. By this unknown author--no soap. I was so wrong about that book. I thought that I smelled a big best-seller in it!

Well, you got some money out of it though.

Oh, we did awfully well with it. The Literary Guild alone...I'm not talking about money...the disappointment of it.

You just never know really if something is going to take off or not.

Another time, The Snake Pit was quite the other way around.