The publishing house that Stieg Larsson built

When a backstreet publisher based near Baker Street, London, bought the rights to an obscure Swedish crime novel written by an unknown author who had died years earlier, it struggled to get it on to bookshop shelves. ...

 

But British publishers got cold feet. "That Larsson had passed away was a problem, as publicity is very important in getting a new book off the ground," Smith explains. "There are tough themes in the book and many were put off by the title. It's also rare that a European success translates into the English-speaking market." While he regrets never meeting the author, he admits that "if he was alive, we probably would never have snapped up the rights".

The hardback edition of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo failed to cause much of a stir when it was published in January 2008, selling around 8,000 copies. "The paperback that followed in the summer did okay but was nowhere near as popular as elsewhere in Europe," Mr Smith added.

The publisher failed to get the books into prominent positions in the shops, and some refused to stock it. One prominent retailer, who Mr Smith declined to name, said its customers "don't like authors with funny names".

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Jon Osterholm