Darcy and the Accidental Author

However, printing books is, of course, only part of the task. It seemed very likely that we would have those 2000 books stored under the stairs for a very long time.
How to market a book is, of course, a major consideration. We contacted our local (large) Waterstone’s bookshop, and spoke to various National Trust venues used for the BBC P&P serial. Jane Austen’s House at Chawton were very selective about the books that they would take, but the Curator liked the novel because it was faithful to JA’s story. We used about 10 outlets in all. Each agreed to take a box of Darcy’s Story.
I vividly remember the moment when it became clear that this book was not going to be stored under the stairs for ever – a phone call from the shop at Lyme Park - “Pemberley” in the BBC TV serial - to say that they had sold all their books in less than 2 days, and could we please deliver more immediately. Within 6 weeks, all the books had sold – quite an achievement for a new small publisher with few outlets.