SOURCE: "Women's Fiction I: The Thorn Birds," in Bestsellers: Popular Fiction of the 1970s, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, pp. 74-81.

In the following essay, Sutherland discusses the publishing history of The Thorn Birds and the novel's great popular appeal.

In the New York Times Book Review's survey of the decade's top ten sellers there are only two works by women. One of the great realizations by the book trade in the 1970s, however, was that the woman reader accounted for much more than a fifth of the market for fiction. In fact, surveys—taken to heart by the book trade—revealed that women consumed around 60 per cent of all novels sold. It was a mark of this realization in 1979 when a work by Judith Krantz earned the highest ever advance sale for paperback rights to a novel ($3.2 m.). If the 1970s demonstrated anything to the publishing industry, it...