Before heading to work at Wells Fargo each morning, Tracey Garvis Graves took a trip to her own private island in the Maldives. On these mini-vacations, she penned a romance novel that mixes the story lines of Blue Lagoon, Castaway, and the kind of student-teacher affairs that fill the tabloids. After being rejected by fourteen literary agents, Garvis Graves self-published her work as an eBook. The story went viral. On the Island climbed to #7 on Amazon, and spent nine weeks on the NYT and USA Today bestseller lists. I caught up with Garvis Graves just after she signed a two book deal with Plume/Dutton and saw On the Island rereleased in print form.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.