Title: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
Author: Dominic Smith
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Genre: Historical fiction
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos nabbed the last spot on the New York Times bestseller list during the week of May 1, and it’s enjoying high rankings on Amazon as well. The novel—a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice—centers on a rare, seventeenth-century painting that links three lives on three continents over three centuries.
When asked what contributed to his book’s success, author Dominic Smith said: “I wish I could narrow it down to one thing, since that would make it a lot easier to replicate! But my hunch is that it’s a combination of savvy marketing by my publisher; a beautiful, evocative cover; a spate of very positive reviews in a short amount of time; and a story that has many open doors for a potential reader—an art forgery, a theft, a lost female painter of the Dutch Golden Age.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
