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Photo by Philip Scalia
Every now and then an author comes along and creates a literary phenomenon. Think Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and more recently the Twilight saga. Thriller writer, Dan Brown, is just such a force. Best known for his 2003 novel, The DaVinci Code, Brown’s most recent work The Lost Symbol launched last Tuesday and sold more than 1 million copies its first day out. Any author or aspiring writer can tell you that this level of success is extremely rare. And if you haven’t been paying close attention, it might appear that it all happened overnight for Brown. But the truth is, his path was long and winding.
After graduating from college Dan Brown’s passion was music, not writing novels. He set out to pursue his musical interests, experimenting with synthesizer effects and creating a children’s CD called SynthAnimals, which sold a few hundred copies. He continued to dabble in music and release albums until he was 27 years old, when he decided to move to Hollywood to become a singer-songwriter and pianist. He taught at Bevery Hills Preparatory School to support himself and continued to produce CDs in his free-time (one of which was called Angels and Demons, a title that he later used for one of his novels).
It wasn’t until he was in his early thirties that he discovered his desire to write fiction. Inspired to outdo Sydney Sheldon’s The Doomsday Conspiracy, Brown took a serious stab at writing. The result was his first book, Digital Fortress, which was published when he was 34. Deception Point and Angels and Demons followed over the next few years. Sales for all three books were relatively low until his fourth book, The DaVinci Code, became a break-out bestseller and created huge demand for his earlier works. His success has soared from there with millions of copies of his books sold and two adapted into major motion pictures.
When we think of the Dan Brown we know and love today, it’s hard to believe that it took pursuing an entirely different career and writing three books before truly hitting his stride. Brown is a great example of the importance of not only following your passion but adapting your dreams as you go.
