If your book isn't a success at first, should you give up?
The play "War Horse" has opened in New York recently and it was fascinating to read the play's background in the New York Times:
The source material was a shortish children's book written by Michael Morpurgo and published in 1982. It good OK reviews but not great sales. It was nominated for a national prize, but lost. The article says that a limo took the author to the ceremony but he had to catch the Underground home. "If sales ever reached 1500 copies a year, I would be surprised," he said.
He kept on writing, often two or three books per year, and become more and more recognized. In 2300 he became the Children's Laureate and many of his other books were selling extremely well.
In 2007 a play version of "War Horse" was done at the National Theatre using amazing life-size puppet/figures of horses and was a massive hit. It transferred to the West End and now is a hit on Broadway.
Oh yeah, a guy named Spielburg directed a film version that opens at the end of the year.
Morpurgo is now 67. He said, "All this should have happened 30 years ago. It's all come completely at the wrong time. But better late than never--although I don't think my wife thinks so, sometimes."
And there we have one of the morals of the story: better late than never. Another one might be never give up. And maybe the most generally applicable one: You never know!
PS: here is the first part of a video diary about the production of the play (3 minutes long):
