An Irish first-time author has found her way onto Amazon’s top 20 bestselling ebooks of the year.
Ann O’Loughlin, a Wicklow-based journalist who works for the Irish Examiner, published The Ballroom Café three months ago after 30 years of newspaper reporting.
It is now in 15th place on the retail giant’s top seller list alongside world-famous titles such as Paula Hawkin’s Girl on the Train at No 1, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn at No 5 and Grey by EL James at No 2.
“The 5am starts and frustrating rewrites have certainly paid off,” she said yesterday. “The ebook has sold over 150,000 times, while the hardback sold 5,000 copies in only two months after being released on the market. It’s the stuff dreams are made of — especially for a first-time author.”
The Ballroom Caf é has been reviewed over 800 times on Amazon,with an average rating of 4.3 stars out of 5.
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“I’ve been doing interviews on radio and TV all week. It’s been unbelievable. The book is selling well outside of Ireland and the UK too, with interest in Italy, Japan, India and Australia. It seems to have become a favourite with book clubs and blogs around the world. We even sold the translation rights in Germany,” she added.
As a strategy to get sales underway, Black & White, O’Loughlin’s Scottish-based publishing company, decided to sell the ebook for €0.67 on Amazon, while the hard copy retails at €10.95.
“It’s one of the reasons why it has been such a succcess. It’s something publishers often do with first-time authors to generate initial interest. When you don’t have a name it’s hard to crack the market, but this way people are willing to take a gamble,” O’Loughlin said.
A low price would only explain some of the book’s popularity, she said, pointing to the hundreds of five-star reviews.
“I think it has struck a chord with many readers as it examines the theory of love and loss, the secrets of the Catholic Church and the burden of shame carried by women in Ireland who were forced to adopt children to the US up until the 1970s,” she said.
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Described by the publishers as “powerful and poignant”, The Ballroom Café charts the story of sisters Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan who haven’t spoken for decades despite sharing a delapitated mansion in Wicklow in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.
Threatened with bankruptcy, Ella tries to save their home by opening a café in the ballroom, despite Roberta’s disapproval. Things get more complex when they meet Debbie, an American women searching for her birth mother, who starts working at the café. As Debbie uncovers an adoption scandal, the community and the sisters are rattled to the core.
“Its not all miserable though. There’s also some great comedy in there and it’s a good read. Lots of people just read it in one or two sessions,” O’Loughlin said.
Kate Kerrigan, The New York Times bestselling author of The Ellis Island trilogy said it was a “beautifully drawn, skilfully written, well-researched novel”.
“A lovely story of two women with the courage to confront the injustices of the past, bringing light to a dark corner of Ireland’s recent history,” she said.
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O’Loughlin said she doesn’t write to be successful. “I write because it’s what I love doing. Getting published is a huge bonus. The most rewarding thing is that people are reading my words around the world”.
She credited her “great team” for making it all happen. “Once Jenny Brown literary agents in the UK got involved, the whole thing mushroomed. I’ve been very lucky. I’m just in the process of finishing my second book and already working on my third,” she said.
The author said that her day job as a court reporter helped to inspire her writing. “You see all forms of human life there. I love it. It also informs my fiction writing. I’ll keep my day job though, unless Hollywood comes knocking of course. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.”