Harris Puts Life on the Page

In 1991, he [E. Lynn Harris] quit his job and moved to Atlanta to write a novel. No one would publish it, so he spent $13,000 to print 5,500 copies. Bookstores balked, so he'd leave a book in beauty parlors ("like a sample") with his name and phone number. Readers who liked what they read while waiting would call him, and he'd deliver a copy in person, $12.95 each.

Eventually the novel made its way into local bookstores and came to the attention of a sales rep for Doubleday who told editors in New York, "There's a book down here making a lot of noise."

In 1992, Doubleday signed him to a $90,000 threebook deal for Invisible Life (in its 44th printing), a sequel and an autobiography he's still trying to finish.

HARRIS PUTS LIFE ON THE PAGE by Bob Minzesheimer (USA Today July 29, 2002)