LIFE IN BRAZIL AFTER 500,000 COPIES: American Author Steven Carter Fights To Keep His Crown

FOR 110 WEEKS STEVEN CARTER DOMINATED THE BESTSELLER LISTS IN BRAZIL WITH HIS SELF-HELP CLASSIC “WHAT SMART WOMEN KNOW”. “MEN WHO CAN’T LOVE” IS NEXT IN THE QUEUE. WILL THIS NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER BE ANOTHER BRAZILIAN BLOCKBUSTER? CARTER GROWS IMPATIENT AS HE TRAINS HARD FOR FIFTEEN MORE MINUTES OF FAME.

For American author Steven Carter, the view from the top is a bit dizzying. In 2007, a book he wrote in 1990 was released in Brazil by the celebrated publishing house GMT Sextante. For the next 110 weeks, “What Smart Women Know” remained on the bestseller lists – a top ten bestseller, sometimes rising high enough to be the #2 book in Brazil. Carter was outselling everyone: J.K. Rowling, Barack Obama, Eckhart Tolle, and a long list of others, including many of Brazil’s most beloved authors.

It has been more than a writer could hope for or even dream for. For Carter, it has been ’a perfect storm’ for self-help – a time when so many of Brazil’s women are experiencing their first sense of their own strength, their own value, and their independence. These women are buying books. More than 500,000 copies of “What Smart Women Know” have flown off the bookshelves in Brazil during the past 110 weeks as being a “Smart Woman” became the rallying cry for women pushing back against Brazil’s machismo past.

The story of Steven Carter’s extraordinary success was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times. For the complete story, go to: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/26/entertainment/et-self26

But the story doesn’t end here. Right now, Carter is working harder than ever, preparing himself for “round two”. In May of 2009, Steven Carter’s most famous book, “Men Who Can’t Love”, will arrive in bookstores throughout Brazil. “Men Who Can’t Love” has already sold almost four million copies worldwide. But will it sweep Brazil? This is the book where Carter coined the phrase “commitmentphobia” and it is iconic in the United States: twenty-two years young and still selling briskly. Still, Carter worries about the book’s future. “Right now I feel like a boxer in the ring about to come out for the second round. If I succeed, I feel I will have a very long career as a writer in Brazil. If I fail, it won’t take long for all of this magic to become a distant memory”.

Carter is not hoping for another miracle. He is doing everything possible to make another miracle happen. He has re-written pieces of “Men Who Can’t Love” so the book speaks more directly to the women of Brazil. He is helping his publisher prepare every piece of marketing and publicity material. And he is studying Portuguese. When he arrives in Sao Paulo this year, he wants to know that he has done everything in his power to fuel another publishing success.

Commitmentphobia is rampant in Brazil, so the stage is clearly set for Steven Carter. But Carter cautions, “The one thing I can’t control is luck. No amount of hard work can guarantee that x factor” Then he adds, optimistically, “Still, I have to look at how much luck I have experienced over the past two years and hope that history is preparing to repeat itself”.

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Richard Friedel

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C.A.S. Publishing

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