Pushing a Self-Published Book in Frankfurt

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 10/16/2008 3:57:00 AM

Although it's not generating the kind of buzz that comes with reports of six and seven figure offers, a new self-published biblical novel, being shopped by Robert Gottlieb at Trident, is one of the interesting books coming out of the rights tent. The Lost Epistle of Jesus, which Gottlieb signed just before the Fair, was written by Evan Drake Howard, a Rhode Island-based Baptist minister with his own church. Gottlieb, who said the book is just on submission in the U.S. with roughly nine houses reading the manuscript, has already sold rights in Brazil and has "serious interest" from publishers in France, Germany and Spain.

Howard, who's published a number of nonfiction books with religious houses like Judson Press and Augsberg Fortress, managed to sell thousands of copies of Epistle after listing the book on Amazon. (This clearly grabbed the attention of Gottlieb, who received the manuscript unsolicited.) At one point the book, which is about a love affair between Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Judas, hit #2 on Amazon's Biblical bestseller list.

Although Gottlieb declined to discuss a potential (or wishful) purchase price for the novel, the self-published phenom remains a constant in the business with several titles trickling up a year. Could Epistle be the next Lace Reader or, more likely, something along the lines of the Hachette-acquired and originally self-published Christian bestseller The Shack? Gottlieb certainly knows the appeal to publishers (and the media) of the self-published author; the platform, as he said, can be "a great way to start a writer."