There are now millions of copies in print, in 28 languages.īut The Red Tent hasn’t reached its apotheosis yet, apparently. By the end of 2000 this grassroots, guerrilla marketing campaign had propelled the book onto the New York Times bestseller list in early 2001 it became a number one Los Angeles Times bestseller. Her tactics had the desired effect: reviews began to appear, religious leaders began either recommending or denouncing the book, women and readers in the broader community took interest, and the rest, as they say, is history.

She also promoted the book herself, giving talks at bookstores and meeting with book club organizers.

Confident in the book’s potential to attract interest among a spiritually-invested audience, she had her editor sent copies of the book to hundreds of rabbis and ministers (including almost 1,500 female Reform rabbis).

At that point Diamant, a journalist herself, developed her own strategy. Unsold hardcovers were slated for destruction by the publisher. When its first run failed to sell or even garner reviews in the major papers, it looked like a paperback version wouldn’t even be issued. Others attribute the book’s success to Diamant taking matters into her own hands. Still, the slow, surprising success of some self-published authors (Darcie Chan’s best-selling debut novel The Mill River Recluse, Amanda Hocking’s Trylle trilogy), and the recent resurgence of interest in Marian Engel’s unlikely 1976 tale of Bear erotica, coupled with Diamant’s now canonical literary status, suggests that writers might still hold faith for such ‘faint hope’ outcomes that defy established industry norms. Such success stories are few and far between, and one might fear the demise of independent bookstores and surge of online sellers could mean the end of them. ( “The Red Tide”, by Patricia Holt, Oct-Nov 2001). Magazine attributes it to the power of ‘hand-selling’ the appreciation and promotion of books by independent booksellers and other literary actors (for instance book clubs), which manage to propel a book into the limelight even without the support of the mainstream publishing industry. How does a book creep along in print for years before becoming a bestseller? A 2001 article in Ms. Regardless of cover, one of the most remarkable things about the book, besides the creative retelling of its subject matter, is the manner of its slow and steady success.Īlthough originally published in 1997, it didn’t actually become a bestseller until almost four years later. This Fall it received a facelift, as Picador issued a new cover to coincide with the novel’s movie tie-in edition. The beautifully striking cover art of Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent is by now easily recognizable in bookstores new and used around the world.

Dinah in the red tent