From The Times
March 17, 2009

You're only as good as your second novel
As the author of the hit The Time Traveler's Wife gets a 5 million deal, Luke Leitch looks at how writers cope with the pressure to write another bestseller

For some, it is the “sophomore jinx”. Others call it Second Novel Syndrome (SNS).

And then there are those such as Mark Haddon who tell it straight. Contemplating the enormous success of his debut novel, Haddon said: “You want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up, isn't there?” Haddon's first novel, you may recall, was The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time. It was a hit. His follow-up, you may not recall, was called A Spot of Bother. It was not a hit - and Haddon's name was added to the long and distinguished list of those struck by SNS.

Now the publishing world is waiting to see whether Audrey Niffenegger can do what Haddon, Zadie Smith, and DBC Pierre all recently failed to - trump their rapturously received first novels by producing even greater second novels.

In 2003 there was no fanfare, no hype and no pressure when Niffenegger's first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, was published. Yet it was one of those one in a million debuts: a brilliant, enrapturing book that became a smash - selling more than 1 million copies in the UK and nearly 1.5 million in the US. Six years down the line and Niffenegger's second novel is six months from its publication date. Already, the pressure is on.
Dan Franklin of Cape, her British publisher, will say only that he spent “lots and lots” on securing Her Fearful Symmetry. Cape, he added, has “unlimited” expectations for its success. “It's got everything,” he told The Bookseller. “It's a fantastic literary novel and unbelievably commercial.” Her Fearful Symmetry's cover, he divulged, will be by the designer responsible for Atonement by Ian McEwan.

Background
· You're only as good as your second novel
· 10 Spectacular second novels
· 10 Cursed second novels
· 10 Literary one-hit wonders

In the US the publishers Scribner won the auction for Her Fearful Symmetry with a bid of $5 million. Nan Graham, the editor-in-chief of Scribner, said that Niffenegger “has defied custom and written a spectacular second novel, which is one of the hardest things to do in the universe”.

Just why writing a great second novel should be “one of the hardest things in the universe” seems to be down to two factors.

First novels, goes the orthodoxy, are the fruits of years of thought shaped into words at the writer's leisure. Stephen Fry explained this when presenting the Encore Award - a £10,000 biannual literary prize for second novels. He said: “The problem with a second novel is that it takes almost no time to write compared with a first novel. If I write my first novel in a month at the age of 23, and my second novel takes me two years, which have I written more quickly? The second of course. The first took 23 years, and contains all the experience, pain, stored-up artistry, anger, love, hope, comic invention and despair of that lifetime. The second is an act of professional writing. That is why it is so much more difficult.”

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