A novel that spent its first year of life selling directly to readers online has landed at No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's hardcover fiction list. "The Poison Daughter," Sheila Masterson's dark romantasy about a woman whose kiss is lethal to everyone but the man she is betrothed to marry, debuts atop the chart this week in its new hardcover edition, roughly ten months after the author first self-published it.
Masterson put "The Poison Daughter" out herself in October 2025, on the heels of several earlier self-published titles including the gothic romance "Song of the Dark Wood" and the "Lost God" fantasy quartet. The new book found an audience fast: it sold more than 250,000 copies as a self-published title and landed on the USA Today bestseller list three separate times before traditional publishers came calling. Zando's romance imprint Slowburn acquired the novel in April, and its retail hardcover and audio edition arrived in stores on August 18.
From Self-Publishing to a Hulu Deal
The book's momentum has followed it into television. Hulu is developing a drama series based on "The Poison Daughter," with Masterson attached to executive produce the adaptation, according to Deadline's report on the deal. The trajectory, from a self-published romantasy selling on word of mouth and social media to a traditional deal and a straight-to-development television order, has become an increasingly familiar path for the genre over the past several years, as publishers and studios race to acquire titles that have already proven they can find readers on their own.
Elsewhere on this week's Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, the nonfiction chart tells its own story about built-in audiences. "Pardon My Book," the tenth-anniversary book from Barstool Sports podcast hosts Dan "Big Cat" Katz and Eric "PFT Commenter" Sollenberger, debuted at No. 1, outselling Dave Portnoy's memoir "Cancel Me If You Can" by roughly 14,000 print copies in its first week. Portnoy's book had itself opened at No. 1 two months earlier, moving about 35,000 print copies in its debut week, a reminder that podcast fan bases can now move as many books as traditional celebrity memoirs, if not more.
For Masterson, the immediate business is less about topping one weekly list than what a debut like this signals to an industry still adjusting to where its bestsellers now come from. A book that never had a marketing campaign behind it until nine months into its life is now a lead title for a major imprint and the basis of a straight-to-series order, without ever having needed a traditional publisher to find its first quarter-million readers.
