Noteworthy Book Oddities & Author Factoids

  

 

If you like to see interesting statistics and analysis thar relate to the world of books, check out

Infographic Guide To Literature: Fascinating Facts and Figures For Book Lovers by Joanna Eliot.

Here are some take-aways of note: 

Age

One is never too young, nor too old, to pen their first published novel. Mary Shelley debuted at the age of 20 when her 1818 publishing of Frankenstein was released. F. Scott Fitzgerald was 23 when The Side of Paradise was released in 1920. At age 15, The Forests of the Night was published in 1999, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. 

While most published debut novelists are in their 30s, many launched at an older age. Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 in 1932 when her book was published: Little House in the Big Woods. Anna Sewell was 57 when Black Beauty was released in 1877.  Lorna Page was 93 in 2008 when her first book came out, A Dangerous Weakness. 

First Editions

The price of a first edition of a classic can be quite high. For books published in the last century, prices range greatly. While The Sun Also Rises fetched $35,000 a decade ago, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone raked in $471,000 in 2021. Oddly, George Orwell’s 1984 did not make the top 10 but another of his books did, Down and Out in Paris and London, going for $141,600 15 years ago. 

Convicts

Some of the great authors have been in prison, and some wrote their best works while behind bars. Oscar Wilde, jailed for gross indecency, penned De Profundis in 1897. Don Quixote was written in 1605 by POW Miguel de Cervantes. 120 Days of Sodom was written in 1785 by Marquis de Sade while serving a term for sodomy, rape, and blasphemy. Other notable jailed writers who wrote published books while locked up include Jack London, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 

Pulp

One tree, on average, can yield enough paper for 31 books. A cord of wood, which is 15 trees, can yield 462 hardcover books of 200 pages each. 

Theft

Of all the books in the world to get stolen, the Bible is the most commonly purloined tome. Also high on the list are Fifty Shades of Grey, all of the Harry Potter books, Guinness Book of World Records, and Wicca and witchcraft books. 

Death

Many authors die before their time, some by their own hand. Albert Camus, 46, hit a tree while driving on a straight road on a clear day. Margaret Mitchell, 48, was killed by a drunk driver. Virginia Woolf drowned herself at 59.  Tennessee Williams choked to death on a medicine bottle cap at 71. Ernest Hemingway shot himself in the head at 61. Sylvia Plath gassed herself in her own oven at age 30. 

Wordy

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables contains a sentence that is 823 words long, and James Joyce’s Ulysses has a sentence running 4,391 words. but neither can even compare against Mathias Enard’s Zone, where the entire 180,000-word novel is one sentence long. 

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Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/