This doesn't have to be true WHen he did Eragon, he did a LOT of marketing (he was on letterman, Jay leno - odd choices i must say), he even had an interview with Australian press ALSO Eragon was made into a movie, which means a new base of readers were going to flock to him. If he didnt market his books so well, AND sold even half as many, them maybe. But the bloke was young and out there.... i mean thazts why i picked up his book. Also (i know im pushing it) but the books cover was a little different (coolish), and crap considering mine fell apart after half a frigging read).
That's an excellent point, Lemex. I read a lot of this stuff for exactly that reason. It's much better to know precisely what's good and bad about a book than to jump on either bandwagon.
People also turned his age into a gimmick. Try to find one article or interview that doesn't put him up on a pedestal for writing what so many teenagers like him have written, and got lucky enough to publish it. Kenneth Oppel wrote his first published book as a teen, every single article and interview mentioned that until he won the Governor General's Award (Canadian equivilant to the Newberry).
Massive ticket-sales for movies in opening weekend do not prove a movie is good, yet it happens regularly. The second and third Spiderman movies were not that great, but they had huge sales, not because they were good, but because the first one was good, how they promoted them, and people love Spiderman. It's a similar case here. Eragon first came out very close to the Lord of the Rings movie craziness. He was compared to Tolkien, and the publisher bragged about it being written by a teenager, so teenage Tolkien fans flocked to it.
Didn't the blokes parent's (Eragon) work in a publishing press (or have their own?) I'm not too sure, but they did most his editing...god knows how much! (I can't source this, but heard it on the grapevine) His age probably shws a lot about society these days (hello, thausands of youngens write, today, yesterday and they will tomorrow). Sterotyping young people as "meh" KInd of like saying a book/movie that makes little sales, makes it a bad book/movie. Not the case.
The book was first published by Paolini International LLC. So yeah. His perants company. Taken from Wikipedia. I love that bit.
