There has been a bit of a buzz around the traps regarding Debra Adelaide's third novel, The Household Guide To Dying, specifically about the advance it received and the foreign sales it generated. Susan Wyndham talks to the author for "The Sydney Morning Herald".
A small research grant enabled Adelaide to offload some of her teaching last year and meet a self-imposed deadline. "I felt convinced that a book I'd written to amuse myself in snatched time in a little corner of my bedroom - a novel I had to fit into the cracks of my life - couldn't possibly work." When she handed it over to her agent, Lyn Tranter, she said, "You'll probably tell me to go away and give it a decent burial." Tranter, however, decided to auction the book.The novel will be launched on Friday at the Sydney Writers' Festival where Adelaide is a guest.On the day of the auction, Adelaide nervously lunched with a friend while taking Tranter's calls about the rising bids; she was thrilled at $50,000 and stunned when they reached more than $100,000. While one publisher's offer gave the book undiluted praise, the response from the Picador Australia publisher, Rod Morrison, said they loved the book but thought it needed some rewriting. He got the deal.
