Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed By Clive Cussler with Craig ...

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Fearful that I would sellThe Mediterranean Caper andIceberg to another publisher and thereby cut
into their sales ofRaise the Titanic! they paid me forty thousand dollars apiece for both books, with the
express purpose of simply keeping them off the market.
Fortunately, an editor took them home over the weekend and read them.
On Monday, having become a believer in Dirk Pitt, he sold the editorial committee on publishing them
both.The Mediterranean Caper andIceberg since have gone on to sell many millions of copies around
the world.
My first and only review from theNew York Times was a classic. The reviewer wrote, "If good books
received roses and bad books skunks, Cussler would get four skunks." With depth of understanding.
This had to be a reviewer who took almost sensual pleasure from his craft. I called Peter and grumbled.
"They didn't have to be that nasty."
And Peter came back with the classic reply. "Listen," he said seriously, "when we start getting good
literary reviews, we're in big trouble."
He was right, of course. The highly touted literary books seldom sell big-time. My own observation of
the self-congratulatory establishment writers is that although they create worldly-wise prose, most of
them can't plot worth a grunt.
My favorite sinister review came out of theChristian Science Monitor .
It took up nearly two-thirds of a page and was very tongue-in-cheek.
The reviewer criticized and nitpicked every page ofInca Gold .
When I reached the end of the review, I broke up in fits of laughter.