The book I had written for my client was dribbling into the shops at the usual dismal speed, when the author was invited onto one of the morning television sofas. For a moment it looked like his nerves would not allow him to accept and it seemed that the publisher’s publicity lady might well die of disappointment, but with a remarkable show of courage and much encouragement from his wife, he steeled himself and took the plunge.
Under the glare of the spotlights, the sweat prickling through his make-up, he told the story of his childhood and everything he had suffered at the hands of a cruel mother, following that up with a painful coming-of-age story.
His vulnerability struck a chord in the motherly heart of the famous presenter on the opposite couch. She looked as if she just wanted to envelop him in her arms and protect him from the world. The watching public must have felt the same. When she reached for a tissue and dabbed a tear from her eye the distribution machinery inside one of the mightiest and most prestigious publishers in the world awoke and stirred into action.
By the following morning there were stacks of the book in every shop and by the following Sunday it was top of the Sunday Times bestseller list.
An avalanche had been set in motion by a single tear on daytime television.