One chance in 200,000?

Publishers Lunch reports that Kathleen McGowan's originally self-published novel The Magdalene Line has been bought by Touchstone for seven figures and is quickly bringing in almost that much from foreign bidders in advance of the London Book Fair.

So, a million bucks for a self-published novel. Not bad, eh? The book was originally published by Booksurge, by the way, which is happy to congratulate Kathleen, even though that edition seems to have been withdrawn. Booksurge also says that it's a three-book deal, no doubt with some small print involving the seven figures.

You can get some idea of the book's contents and the background to this success story from Kathleen's own web site. The site reprints the Touchstone press release.

This deal is presumably another one influenced by the Da Vinci effect. What is it with the Mary Magdalene stuff? I don't get it myself. But then if I did I'd be rich and famous.

Before you start dreaming too many dreams about what you will do with your million bucks when your self-published novel inevitably makes it, you might like to do your own calculation as to how likely it is that a contract will eagerly be pressed upon you. My own guess is that the chance is about 1 in 200,000.

In any event, it's somewhere between slim and zero; and Slim, I fear, was on the last bus out of town yesterday.