NP: publishing history story re To Kill a Mockingbird on turning 50

[Mark Kohut]

Amidst all the terrif To Kill a Mockingbird celebration this week, I thought you 
might like this story I learned from Shields' bio of Ms. Lee.
 
When the manuscript was circulated in-house outside of editorial, many in sales 
and marketing  were very worried about sales. No sales
at all in the South of 1960, and who North might care about the story, many felt 
and said....
 
Yet, the sentiment was virtually unanimous that they should publish it 
anyway--"even if we don' sell 1500" , someone said, I think---because of the 
story and quality of the book.  Nowadays, sales and marketing is almost always 
spoken of as killers of potential books.