O’Connelly’s return to Paris helped him put his ideas into perspective. Travelling and moving from one home to another had always proved to be a creative tool. Stuck in one location produced introspective work and crimped his style, which always influenced by local media news. Having been a journalist at the International Herald Tribune, part of The New York Times Company, in Paris he had been weaned on world events. An experience one step removed from writing good novel.
As a successful writer people often asked him, how many copies must a book sell to be considered a success? It was not an easy question. Everything was relative. O’Connelly remembered when his first book passed the fifty thousand mark. However, he had grown sceptical when certain authors spoke of their sales; there was a big difference between the number of books printed and those sold, without taking into account returns. The sale of hard backs and paperbacks made a considerable difference to him in terms of royalties, the former selling at three or four times the price of the latter.
His books went through three publishing phases: first a hard back followed about a year later by a quality paperback and finally a trade paperback. So as far as royalties were concerned, which mattered most to his bank account, it could take up to two years before he knew whether his book had been a real success or not, regardless of it being proclaimed a bestseller by the media.
It also determined the relationship with his agent and publisher, which in turn dictated advance payments. His last two books had sold over one hundred thousand hard backs, which earned good money for all concerned. A hefty advance payment was an encouragement to produce quality and commercially successful writing, which was his goal, although he liked to get his message for posterity in between the lines.
He had been lucky in having a good agent, and a good publisher, from the very start, which had been largely due to his own ‘insider’ status, being a known journalist for an international newspaper helped. Of course the choice of subject matter was vital.
Many successful first novels were biographically based, selling a few thousand hardcover copies. His own was a mix of fiction and non-fiction in a high profile political drama that attracted considerable public interest. The success of his style and the actuality of his story ensured a handsome book deal with his publisher together with a high profile marketing campaign for his second novel.