The New York Times magazine recently featured a long article about Gregory Maguie, who wrote the novel, "Wicked," and the success of the musical of the same name.
First, the success: Since it opened, the Broadway production and 3 national companies have grossed nearly $500 million.
Now, the wait: It took ten years for the book to reach the N. Y. Times best-seller list. Maguire has told the story of one book store reading at which seven people showed up. Four were homeless people sheltering from the snow, two were friends of his brother, and one was a genuine customer who did buy one copy of the book."
It was gradual word of mouth that did make the book a success--by the time the musical opened in 2003, the book had sold half a million copies. Of course the theatre production has spurred sales even more.
Not all slow beginning have a happy ending, of course. But some do.
