The Dan Brown Enigma

by Graham A Thomas

  The launch of the novel is still considered to be one of the best in publishing history. ‘Articles have been written specifically on The Da Vinci Code launch,’ Brown said in his witness statement. ‘Steve Rubin and his team should get the credit for the success.’ Months before the book came out, Rubin sent Brown on the road to meet the booksellers. ‘Many booksellers were in love with the book when they read the advance reader copies.’ What made it more amazing was that these copies were based on the first draft of the novel and not the final one.

  ‘I must admit, somewhat embarrassingly,’ Brown said, ‘that until The Da Vinci Code launch, with the tremendous support booksellers have showed my book, I did not fully understand the role of word of mouth in the process and its power to generate buzz and excitement.’

  The 10,000 advance copies were more than the first printings of his three other novels put together. Realising the book had mass appeal, the publisher initiated an unusual grassroots marketing campaign to try and frontload some name recognition for Brown. The idea was to generate interest among the booksellers before the book was released, rather than buy massive advertising campaigns afterwards. The plan worked and bookstores started doubling and tripling their orders before the book came out.[133]

  This time it was the publisher that was scheduling the interviews, creating publicity material and sending out press releases – Blythe no longer needed to be her husband’s press agent. ‘I’ve had the experience of writing a book and not having many people care, and this has been the exact opposite,’ Brown said. ‘It poses many challenges as far as my time, privacy and level of visibility – all of which I’m very hesitant to complain about, because they’re all problems that most writers in the world wish they had.’[134]

  Early indications from the advance copies were extremely positive, so based on the orders that were flooding in, Doubleday took a gamble and ordered a print run of 230,000 copies, setting the publication date for 18 March 2003. Of course it could have all backfired and sales could have been nowhere near expectations, but one other thing happened that helped to push the novel skyward.

  The day before The Da Vinci Code was due to be published, the New York Times ran a hugely positive review by the paper’s book critic, Janet Maslin. It was filled with accolades such as ‘an erudite suspense thriller’ and ‘the book moves at breakneck pace’. Maslin’s review set the wheels in motion when she compared the book to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Brown believes this was largely because of the secret rituals, codes and other mystery elements in Harry Potter that people found in his work. According to Lisa Rogak, he likened it to a more mature version of Harry Potter. [135]

  Momentum was building. The booksellers could see the book had tremendous potential and so could the publisher. Everyone worked together to help the book succeed. By the end of the first week it had sold more than 24,000 copies. Brown was in Seattle on a book tour when he heard the news that The Da Vinci Code had hit the bestseller lists. It must been a sweet moment, because Brown has stated that had he stayed with Pocket Books, he feels The Da Vinci Code would have failed as his second and third books did. ‘Equally, I think Angels & Demons would have been a big success if published by Random House with as much fanfare as they brought to The Da Vinci Code.’[136]

  The first print run of 230,000 copies sold out very quickly and Brown became one of the publisher’s top authors in terms of money generated. He’d gone from a nobody to a very big somebody almost overnight.

  In her book, The Man Behind the Da Vinci Code: An Unauthorised Biography, Lisa Rogak states that Brown’s agent Heidi Lange renegotiated his contract, landing him a four-book deal with Robert Langdon being the main character in each one. Not wanting to take the chance that Brown might go elsewhere after providing them with the second book to fulfill the original contract by, Doubleday agreed to the new contract. They wanted their new cash cow to stay put. Brown had become an industry in his own right.

  In Britain, the New Statesman suggested that Dan Brown should be the New Statesman Man of the Year. This tongue-in-cheek claim was the title of an article in the magazine on 13 December 2004 but the facts in the story by Jason Cowley speak for themselves. At the time of writing his piece, The Da Vinci Code was the bestselling novel in Britain and in the US. More than eight million copies had been sold worldwide and Sony Pictures had bought the film rights in a multi-million dollar deal which would eventually become a Hollywood blockbuster starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon.

  ‘Books are being written and scholarly articles published to refute its more outlandish claims and theological speculations,’ wrote Cowley. ‘The author’s previous three novels – Deception Point, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress – are, as I write, second, third and fourth on the UK paperback fiction bestseller lists as well as being in the Top 10 in the US.’

  But Cowley also suggested that something significant was taking place that the cultural elite seemed to be ignoring. ‘Like the Harry Potter books that are so popular with adults, it is a hugely accomplished escapist narrative,’ he wrote. ‘Brown knows exactly what he is doing, what he wants to say and how to say it. Beyond its huge generic accomplishment and obvious readability, The Da Vinci Code has something else to offer: it is a fascinating political text, underscored by an intense eschatological anxiety. In the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001 and the invasion of Iraq, in a world where a mysterious and opaque global network of religious terrorists called al-Qaeda threatens the West as well as, it is believed, communicating via encoded messages, a novel such as The Da Vinci Code carries a powerful political charge.’[137]

  As part of the publicity campaign for the book, Brown had appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America peak-time TV show to talk about the issues in The Da Vinci Code and Cowley claimed the sales of the book hadn’t stopped climbing since.

  In his article, Cowley wondered how seriously we should take Dan Brown. Very seriously indeed was the answer, ‘not least because eight million people have bought The Da Vinci Code in less than 18 months and many millions more will do so in the months ahead. Many of these readers will enjoy the book and think no more of it; some will throw it across the room in derision. But others, judging by the number of dedicated websites it has spawned, will believe it just as some believe the astrological guides that are published each morning in the newspaper. They will believe that it is historically true.’

  And yet Cowley himself, in considering Brown and his fourth novel, had only done what many others have done: jump on the Dan Brown bandwagon, caught up in the hype and momentum that is the Dan Brown industry. ‘With its pseudo-scholarship, religious zeal and conspiracy theories,’ he wrote, ‘The Da Vinci Code occupies the ambiguous space of all our “if onlys” while offering us its own stairway to heaven. Not a bad combination, then; in fact, a sure-fire winner.’ [138]

  And it was a winner more than anyone could ever have anticipated. A million copies were sold in the US alone in its first ten weeks. A full year after it was published The Da Vinci Code had sold more than 6.5 million copies in the US and after two years that figure jumped to 10 million copies.

  After the long, lean, hard years Brown had hit the big time with a novel that had captured the imagination of millions of people. The sales were climbing and he was smiling but what happened next was something that no one in the publishing world had seen before and Brown would discover there was a price to pay for the success he had finally found.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * * *

  STRIKING IT RICH

  I’m not really a pretender. I like complicated ideas presented in a fun way. My best teachers were the teachers that made learning fun.There are hundreds of books that deal with the topic of The Da Vinci Code that are pretty hard to read. And here’s one that isn’t [139].

  After The Da Vinci Code was published, the millions of readers who’d devoured The Da Vinci Code decided they wanted more Dan Brown, so they began to buy his first three novels. Both publishers of his
earlier books were taken completely by surprise by the demand and at first had difficulty handling the volume of orders. As the two publishers finally managed to get their houses in order to handle the volume, the phenomenon happened. All four books appeared on the bestsellers’ lists in the same week, which was completely unheard of. Digital Fortress made the list five years after it had been published.[140] ‘I really got the sense that people were ready for this story,’ Brown said. ‘It was the type of thing people were just ready to hear.’

  In addition, the controversy in The Da Vinci Code – the claim that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and that they’d had a child – heightened the sales still further, whether out of curiosity or anger.

  During the last interview he did before he began promoting The Lost Symbol in 2009, Brown said that the controversy was welcomed. ‘Whether someone agrees or disagrees with these ideas, at least we’re talking about them, and that can only be good,’ he said on Entertainment Weekly, going on to caution that everyone should remember that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction and not an academic tome or historical document. ‘All of the references in the book – whether it’s the documents or secret societies – all of that information is drawn from fact. But anyone who turns to popular fiction as some sort of historical textbook – I don’t think anybody is doing that.’

  Brown believes he is presenting ideas that are controversial and people are looking for ways to either embrace or dispute them. ‘Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think it’s great that people are talking about it. To my critics, I usually say, “Thank you, thank you for being passionate about a topic for which most people feel only apathy.”’[141]

  One interesting fact that Lisa Rogak tells us about in her book is that Brown changed the acknowledgements page of subsequent editions of Angels & Demons. Originally, he had thanked his first agent Jake Ellwell and the agency Wieser and Wieser. He even went so far as to refer to Ellwell as his friend. However, once the sales for his fourth novel went through the roof, Brown went back to Angels & Demons and thanked his new agent Heidi Lange for giving new life to the book. Ellwell is pushed down several paragraphs and is no longer referred to as Brown’s friend.[142]

  We can only speculate as to why he did this. Nitpicking? Possibly, but he remains an enigma as he has also built a shrine in his house to all the publishers who have supported him. This he calls the Fortress of Gratitude and it contains more than 500 volumes – ‘one copy of every edition of my books that have been published all around the world,’ he told Matt Lauer of The Today Show. ‘I have five books but they have come out in hardcover, paperback, movie tie-in editions, and it is a reminder of the good fortune I’ve had and all the great relationships I’ve made with foreign publishers around the world. It’s a good reminder of all the great stuff that has happened.’[143]

  The more the fourth novel sold, the more Brown was compared with other bestselling thriller writers like Grisham or Clancy. This success took a long time to register with Brown, who was still used to lean times. ‘I’m overwhelmed by the success of The Da Vinci Code, and I don’t tend to read my reviews, good or bad,’ he said. ‘I live a fairly isolated existence as far as the press goes. I’ve been on talk shows and things, but as far as buying in to what the media is saying – the next Grisham, the next Clancy, whatever – that doesn’t really change my situation. Every morning I look at a blank piece of paper, and no matter what name people want to give me, I still have to create an engaging, intellectually challenging plot.’[144]

  As the book continued to grow, Brown went on Good Morning America in November 2003. Doubleday had set up an online site for people to take part in a treasure hunt where they could decipher clues to crack four codes – the ones on the cover of the book. More than 40,000 people managed to decipher all four of these and hundreds of thousands more tried but failed. Essentially, once a person had cracked all four codes they could then add their name on the site. ‘When I heard that 40k had finished and that hundreds of thousands had played, I didn’t know what to think,’ admitted Brown.

  In the studio there was a giant blow-up of the cover of The Da Vinci Code on which Brown and the show’s host Charles Gibson could point out the clues to the audience and the viewers. ‘There are four codes visible to the naked eye on this jacket,’ Brown said. But he also admitted that there might be more. ‘Perhaps you need to turn the jacket a bit, use some good light,’ he said. ‘Perhaps even a magnifying glass might help.’

  Pointing to the massively enlarged cover, Brown provided Gibson with some hints on where the codes were. On the flap where it said ‘while in Paris on business’ Brown said, ‘There is something different about the word business. It is a very simple code to see.’ For viewers at home he continued, ‘If readers go to thedavincicode.com they will find a simple riddle that will see the very first location of the first code.’

  Brown then showed Gibson more clues. ‘This here is a darkened letter and if you follow the word symbologist you’ll find the letter s and you’ll get a phrase that is a distress call for a secret society,’ he said. ‘Technically this isn’t a code – it’s just a hidden language,’ he said referring to the darkened letters.

  Elsewhere, Brown pointed out a very faint latitude and longitude, which he said was for ‘an American sculptor of Kryptos at the CIA headquarters,’ he said. ‘It has a very strange message.’ This strange message from Kryptos is ‘Only WW Knows’, which Brown claims refers to William Webster. ‘He was head of CIA. I’ve had some people tongue in cheek refer to it as an ambigram of the initials for Mary Magdalene.’

  From the forty thousand successful participants, one name was chosen. Mr Brian Shay won the contest and promptly asked his girlfriend to marry him on the show. It had taken him around 40 minutes to work out all the clues, which Brown said was a record. What he won was a trip for two to Paris, where the book is set. ‘They’ll be sent for a number of days, and I will send with them a list of a number of secret locations in Paris for their own explorations.’[145]

  By the time of the contest, Christmas 2003, Brown’s fourth novel had sold more than five-and-a-half million copies. For Brown it was ‘entirely shocking’. It was also a complete life-changer. ‘I am fairly private person,’ he said to Matt Lauer. ‘I sacrificed a fair amount of privacy when The Da Vinci Code came out.’ But he was happy to give that up in exchange for what he terms the wonderful things that have happened. ‘It makes research a little bit tricky because you can’t just walk in and say hey I’m writing a book, what can you tell me?’ [146]

  The success of The Da Vinci Code gave Brown opportunities he would never have had before. Of course there is the financial gain but also Brown found himself having access to ‘an enormous number of fascinating people with fascinating ideas,’ he told Lauer. ‘At the same time, I have much less privacy. I’m recognised often, and there are intrusions to privacy that are a challenge. But nothing good comes without challenges.’

  Brown travels extensively while researching his books and has sometimes sat beside someone on a plane who was reading his book. ‘I often like to say, “Is that thing any good?” Just see what they think, maybe engage them in a conversation a little bit about the book without giving them any idea who I am. That’s always fun.’

  On one occasion he and Blythe were walking along a beach on a remote island and they found someone reading The Da Vinci Code. ‘And I’ll just walk up and say, “How is that?” And they’ll look up just sort of stunned. So it’s always a strange sort of experience for people,’ he told Lauer.

  Even though he’s now worth millions, Brown maintains a simple life. ‘We really feel our life needs to stay as normal as possible. We travel a lot, but we always have. We enjoy antiques but we always have.’ Brown has put a lot of his newfound wealth into charities, as he explained. ‘My father’s an educator. I grew up a teacher, certainly education is important. I’m a member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America and I have a little brother that I see all the time, and
I’m sure we’ll want to help them out.’

  The fame also brought with it added pressure for him to produce another blockbuster. ‘The reality is that putting pressure on yourself, whether you are a creative person or not, it really interferes with your performance,’ he said. ‘You have to breathe in, exhale and give it to them when it’s done.’[147]

  When The Da Vinci Code hit the big time, Brown’s editor, Jason Kaufman, also found the limelight in the publishing world was suddenly squarely upon him. Before The Da Vinci Code broke, Kaufman’s projects had covered everything from fiction to non-fiction topics, but he’d had no massive break-out book. With Brown’s blockbuster success, Kaufman suddenly found himself inundated by agents trying to sell him pale imitations of The Da Vinci Code or of Brown’s other books. Lisa Rogak tells us that in the year after The Da Vinci Code was published, Kaufman bought only one fiction book.[148]

  Brown had a difficult time buying into his new celebrity status, as he told Matt Lauer. ‘It changes your life dramatically. I’m sitting on the Today Show, talking to Matt Lauer. That’s a new experience. The same time, I’m a writer. I spend my life essentially alone at a computer. That doesn’t change. I have the same challenges every day.’

  As the momentum of the novel’s success grew and his celebrity status along with it, Brown became much more reclusive, going into what he termed retirement to write his next book. ‘There’s enormous change,’ he said. ‘There are changes to your amount of privacy. Your amount of visibility. Your workload.’[149]

  Unfortunately, that book soon became delayed as Brown’s exhaustive schedule of media interviews grew to keep pace with the runaway success of The Da Vinci Code. While the publishers wanted the follow-up book as soon as they could get it, they also wanted Brown to stay on the media trail to promote his bestseller, so his writing schedule began to suffer. ‘I have personal deadlines,’ he said. ‘I would like to spend no more than a year-and-a-half writing this book. Hopefully, it’s closer to a year.’[150]