Like all budding authors, Nicholas Sparks hoped that his first novel, The Notebook (1996), would do well and that he could live the dream of being a full-time writer. He tells Show Daily, “I don’t think there was any way I could have imagined that it would become as successful as it did. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle.”

Twenty years later, the author is still going strong, with more than 100 million copies of his books sold globally (see sidebar). He is with the same agent, Theresa Park, now his business partner, who picked up his manuscript decades ago from the proverbial slush pile and sold it to Jamie Raab, then at Warner Books, now president and publisher, Grand Central Publishing. Raab has edited all of his books (Two by Two, his 20th work, comes out this fall), and she recalls falling in love with his first manuscript. “I read it right away and sent it to Maureen Egen, the president of Warner Books at the time. I had it waiting for her at her apartment when she got back from the Frankfurt Book Fair, and the first morning she came into the office, she said, ‘I agree, we’ve got to publish this novel!’ I bought it and the rest is history.”

To add spice to the mix, the CBS news program, 48 Hours, decided back in 1996 to do a segment on the making of a bestseller. Sparks explains, “They didn’t want the show to make the book a bestseller—they wanted it to be a bestseller prior to the show. So every week from October, when the book first came out, to December, I kept saying, ‘What do you mean, they’re not going to air it for six weeks?’ They held firm, and it eventually ran in December.”

Raab chimes in, “They followed the publication of the book from the planning meetings, to designing the jacket, to coming up with publicity plans. And it was risky, because we didn’t know it was going to be a bestseller. We were doing everything possible to make sure it was a bestseller, and the campaign was enormous because we adored the book. I remember the last scene on the 48 Hours segment was right after The Notebook came out. There we all were—and this shows how much time has passed—we’re all standing around the office waiting for the New York Times bestseller list to come out of the fax machine, and there it was, on the bestseller list.”

Although The Notebook never went to #1, it stayed on the list for 56 weeks, during which time Sparks sold his second novel, Message in a Bottle, as well as the movie rights for his first two books. Asked when the author decided to become a full-time writer, he instantly replies, “February 4, 1997. I had been selling pharmaceuticals at the time, and at first I didn’t know if this was just a one-time thing. But after The Notebook had been on the bestseller list for four months, and my agent said Message in a Bottle was really good, I turned in my notice.”

Looking back over his career, Sparks talks about the challenges he faces to keep writing good stories. “The biggest thing that I try to do is reinvent the wheel with every novel. I really strive to have the end of all my books surprise you. How do you write within the theme of a love story and make the novels feel different from each other? I’ve varied them in virtually every conceivable way.”

Raab agrees that the author’s novels are diverse, yet they touch the same emotional chords. She appreciates how he likes to mix things up: “Nick experimented with adding suspense, with age groups—he wrote heroines who were teenagers, old people, and everything in between. He has what I call the comedies and the tragedies. There’s so much variety from book to book, and yet each is such a good, powerful, emotionally satisfying story that he keeps those fans that he had from the beginning and keeps getting more. He always stays true to himself, but he experiments within the form.” Reflecting on her 20 years of working with the author, she adds, “There’s something special about Nick. It’s not just an editor-author relationship, it’s a pretty deep friendship.”

Sparks doesn’t come often to BEA and is excited to be here. “It’s a chance to mingle with those people who have supported my career. And it’s always interesting to see what’s coming out. Books inspire a deep passion for those who love them. Like everyone else, I’ll be looking for that gem of a novel or nonfiction story that you’re just enthralled with from beginning to end.”

Sparks fans at BEA will have an opportunity to meet the author this afternoon at the Hachette Booths (1716, 1717), which will be doing what Grand Central Publishing is calling a “booth takeover” to celebrate Sparks’s 20 years in publishing. All the screens in the booth will display his book covers (every title will soon be repackaged in honor of his two decades in publishing). He will be signing hardcover copies of See Me (2015), 3 –4 p.m., and a staffer will be on hand to take fan and author photos with people’s phones. There will also be a custom Snapchat filter for the photos. Bookmarks featuring Two by Two (Oct.), about a father-daughter relationship, will also be available.

Sparks’s Stats

● Over 100 million copies of his books sold to date.

● That includes 65 million copies sold in the United States.

● His books have been translated into more than 50 languages.

● All of his books are still in print.

● 11 Sparks novels have been adapted into major motion pictures.

● Adaptations of his novels have a cumulative worldwide gross of over three-quarters of a billion dollars.

This article appeared in the May 11, 2016 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.