This week, our second annual listeners episode of the podcast, we answer all of your questions

which you sent in to books at nytimes.com and tweeted at us and posted online in other

ways, shapes and forms and we answer.

First up, a critic segment with Dwight Garner and his editor John Williams.

We will then be joined by two editors at the Book Review, Lauren Christensen and MJ

Franklin and finally our true and trepid publishing reporters Liz Harris and Alexander

Alter will also answer questions.

Today is January 7th, this is the Book Review podcast from the nytimes, I'm Pamela Paul.

Hi Pamela, how are you John?

All right, let us start with some questions from our listeners.

We have an email that came from Francis Martinez and he writes, I was thinking how many times

I have heard discussions of one hit wonders in music, one smash hit and then gone and I

was wondering if the same thing exists in literature.

Harper Lee comes to mind that she chose not to publish another book, what authors debuted

with a smash and never replicated that success.

You know, there are a lot of them, but you think John?

There must be a ton of them.

Yeah, two or three come immediately to mind.

Well Margaret Mitchell, much like Harper Lee, chose, I think, chose to only publish Gone

with the Wind and certainly commercially that was a giant smash.

When I think of one hit wonder, I usually think of a lot of popular success because I

also, another person who comes to mind who for a long time seemed like she might be that

...