Millions Millions • There are few iron facts in the crapshoot of the...

There are few iron facts in the crapshoot of the literary life, but here’s one: In book publishing — no less than in music, war, and sex — timing is everything. I have found five books that illustrate different facets of this fact. In the first, what initially appeared to be bad timing proved to be the opposite. In the second, the timing of publication was simply horrible. And the three others were graced with something no amount of publicity or hype can buy: great dumb luck.

Bill Morris, “Timing Is Everything: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”