Debut novel

The title page ofSense and Sensibility,Jane Austen's debut novel published in 1811.

Adebut novelis the firstnovelanovelistpublishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on thepublishing industry,and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future.First-time novelistswithout a previous published reputation, such as publication in nonfiction, magazines, orliterary journals,typically struggle to find a publisher.

Sometimes new novelists willself-publishtheir debut novels, because publishing houses will not risk the capital needed to market books by an unknown author to the public.Most publishers purchase rights to novels, especially debut novels, throughliterary agents,who screen client work before sending it to publishers.These hurdles to publishing reflect both publishers' limits in resources for reviewing and publishing unknown works, and that readers typically buy more books from established authors with a reputation than from first-time writers. For this reason, literary communities have created awards that help acknowledge exceptional debut novels.

Publishing and recognition

In contemporary British and American publishing markets, most authors receive only a small monetary advance before publication of their debut novel; in the rare exceptions when a large print run and high volume of sales are anticipated, the advance can be larger.For an example of an unusually high advance: in 2013, the highly anticipatedCity on FirebyGarth Risk Hallbergcaptured the attention of ten publishers who started a bidding war that ended withKnopfbuying the rights to the book for 2 million dollars. The book's film production rights were purchased soon after by producerScott Rudin.

For similar reasons that advances are frequently not very large—novels frequently do not sell well until the author gains a literary reputation. There are exceptions, however; YouTuberZoellapublished her debut novelGirl Onlinein November 2014, and the book sold 78,109 copies in Britain in its first week.The novel saw huge sales because she already had an established audience, and publishers were willing to run a large print run.By comparison, bestsellingFifty Shades of Greysold 14,814 copies in its first week, or later popular novels, likeHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,only receive small initial print runs.Debut novels that do well will be reprinted as sales increase due to word of mouth popularity of the novels—publishers do not often run large marketing campaigns for debut novelists.

There are numerousliterary prizes for debut novelsoften associated with genre or nationality. These prizes are in recognition of the difficulties faced by debut novelists and bring attention to deserving works and authors. Some of the more prestigious awards around the world include the AmericanHemingway Foundation/PEN Award,the FrenchPrix Goncourt du Premier Roman,the BritishGuardian First Book Award,the GermanAspekte-Literaturpreisand the JapaneseNoma Literary Prize.The New York Timescommentator Leslie Jamison described the big, and often very public, "to do" about debut novels and novelists created by these book awards, as associated with the excitement of finding authors and writers without established legacies.In the same piece for theTimes,Ayana Mathisdescribes the debut novel as "a piece of the writer's soul in a way that subsequent books can't ever be", because the novel is necessarily a work of passion and a product of all of their life before that moment.

Literary characteristics

Often an author's first novel will not be as complex stylistically or thematically as subsequent works and often will not feature the author'stypical literary characteristics.Huffington Post's Dave Astor attributes these to two forces: first that authors are still learning their ownunique styleand audiences are more willing to read works from unknown authors if they resemble more conventional styles of literature.As examples, Astor points to J. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Hobbit(1937), Margaret Atwood'sThe Edible Woman(1969) and Charles Dickens'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club(1837), all of which lack the complexity or stylistic characteristics which audiences praise in the authors' later work.There are however some debut novels that are regarded as the author'smasterpiece,for exampleGustave Flaubert'sMadame Bovary,Joseph Heller'sCatch 22,Günter Grass'The Tin DrumandChinua Achebe'sThings Fall Apart.

Sometimes, instead of writing novels to begin their career, some authors will start withshort stories,which can be easier to publish and allow authors to get started in writing fiction.

Etymology

According to theOxford English Dictionary,the earliest attested usage of "first novel" is from 1876.However, the term is much older, with instances going back to at least 1800.TheOxford English Dictionarydoes not have an entry for "debut novel". The earliest usage of "debut novel" in theGoogle Booksdatabase is 1930 (as of 2011).The term appears in newspapers as early as 1922, in a review ofMarjorie L.C. Pickthall's novelThe Bridge.TheGoogle Books Ngram Viewershows the term becoming more widely used after about 1980, gaining in popularity since.

See also

• Debut (disambiguation)