Nicholas Sparks
Official Web Site www.nicholassparks.com
The works of Nicholas Sparks are among the most successful franchises in Hollywood. His 15 novels have all been domestic an international best sellers, selling more than 55 million copies in over 32 languages. His latest novel, “The Last Song,” debuted at No.1 on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Five of these have been turned into movies to date, including some of the most successful box-office hits of the past decade, such as “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle” and the recent “Dear John,” which debuted at No. 1 when it was released in February 2010. Sparks’ first four movies averaged a domestic box-office gross per film of $56 million, with another $100 million in DVD sales.
Sparks began writing novels while recovering from a track injury at the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a degree in business finance and graduated with honors in 1988. Although his first two novels were never published, he continued to pursue a writing career after graduation. But after being rejected by several publishers and also law school, he experimented with a variety of unrelated job fields, trying to find his passion. He received his first break in 1990 when he collaborated on a book with Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills. It was published by Feather Publishing before being picked up by Random House. Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.
While selling pharmaceuticals in North Carolina, he wrote “The Notebook,” to which Warner Books bought the rights three years later. It spent 56 weeks on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list and another 54 weeks on the paperback list, eventually selling more than 10 million copies.
Unsure that he could repeat this success, Sparks continued selling pharmaceuticals until he was confidant that his next book, “Message in a Bottle,” would be a hit. Sparks published a string of novels during the next decade including “A Walk to Remember” (1999), “The Rescue” (2000), “A Bend in the Road” (2001), “Nights in Rodanthe” (2002), “The Guardian” (2003), “The Wedding” (2003), “Three Weeks with My Brother” (2004), “True Believer” (2005) and “At First Sight” (2005), which were published by Warner Books. “Message in a Bottle” was the first of his books to be made into a movie, which became a box-office hit in 1999. It was followed by “A Walk to Remember” (2002), “The Notebook” (2004) and “Nights in Rodanthe” (2008).
The film rights to “True Believer” and “At First Sight” have been sold, and “The Lucky One” is in development for an anticipated 2012 release. Sparks has also written the screenplay for “The Guardian,” which has not yet been offered for sale.
The Last Song - Julie Anne Robinson (2010)
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