Successful, Independent Teen Novel Resonates with Readers

Teen novel 'A Butterfly in Winter' has recently reached close to 1000 sales. In only four months, Tara L. Entwistle-Clark's book about peer pressure and teen sexuality proves to strike a chord with young adult readers.

(PRWEB) September 18, 2005 -- Teen novel "A Butterfly in Winter" has recently reached close to 1000 sales. In only four months, Tara L. Entwistle-Clark's book about peer pressure and teen sexuality proves to strike a chord with young adult readers.

In the world of independent publishing, the term "bestseller" means something very different than it does to people like J.K. Rowling. However, Tara L. Entwistle-Clark's novel, A Butterfly in Winter, can be deemed a success. In four short months, the novel has sold close to 1,000 copies without a literary agent or "traditional publisher."

"A Butterfly in Winter" is a novel about peer pressure, especially in relation to teen sexuality. However, Clark states that she believes the novel neither glorifies nor condemns these behaviors; it merely reports them.

"I think one of the reasons that the novel has been so successful is that teenagers want to read about people like them. They don't want an author to preach morality, but they do want to see the characters struggle with the issues they face every day. I set out with the goal that I would not lie in this novel. I wasn't going to candycoat high school, but the world of an adolescent is not so bad that it needs to be vilified."

Clark has experience with high school, as she teaches English to students in grades 9 and 12. She is also not that far removed from high school herself, having graduated only ten years ago.

Mark Frye, author of School Shooter: In His Own Words (iUniverse, 0-59534-751-7), had this to say about Clark's novel. "A Butterfly in Winter rings with a truth and realism uncommon in teen fiction nowadays. [Clark writes with a wisdom beyond compare without creating an unrealistic voice for her teen narrator. The novel tells a compelling story about how often teens do what the crowd expects them to, and how steep the price can be when they choose to conform. The ending is written so matter-of-factly that it becomes twice as horrifying, leading the reader to believe that it is an all-too-common experience for young girls."

Now, Clark says, she wants to maintain the pace that she's created. "Hopefully, the more people who read the book, the more they will tell their friends."

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