The Accidental Bestseller

Several years ago, I met a charming author from the Atlanta area, Wendy Wax, at a writers' conference. We had a nice conversation about libraries, writing, and the publishing industry. I'd received one of her books as a gift, and I remember reading and liking it, but her name sort of fell off my radar until recently, when I came across her 2009 release The Accidental Bestseller.

Kendall Aims is a bottom-of-the-midlist author whose personal and professional lives are both falling apart. Her editor barely acknowledges her existence. She can't complete the last book in her contract. She's just lost out on a big award. She comes home to the news that her husband's leaving her. Her kids are going off to college. Alone and abandoned, Kendall undergoes the Mother of All Meltdowns. Her three best friends, also published authors, band together to help the only way they know how: by collaborating on Kendall's book. The only problem is that each of them puts a little too much of herself into the story, and their act of kindness will create major disruptions in the lives of all four authors.

This was a fun read for me, mainly because a lot of it is a thinly disguised roman à clef of the romance-writing world. Deciphering who's a stand-in for which well-known editor, or which giant publisher is being described under a different name, had a certain appeal for me. The plot structure allows the author to explain how a book goes from idea to finished product, and that was interesting, too. Anybody who wants to learn more about book publishing might enjoy this book, but I'd also recommend it to fans of humor-laced books with a "flawed and feisty heroine," the kind of gal Mary Kay Andrews and Susan Elizabeth Phillips write about.

A little humor and a lot of heart made The Accidental Bestseller a pleasant read. I liked it well enough that I went right ahead and put Wax's 2010 title, Magnolia Wednesdays, on hold. I'll let you know how it turns out.

--Nora