In the spring of 1978, I landed a job as a senior editor at Pocket Books, though I was hardly qualified for the position. The publisher at the time, Peter Mayer, was committed to hiring bright young people on the cheap. Though I’d never before acquired a book, I was now able to acquire not only hardcover reprints but also paperback originals. Flowers in the Attic was my first.

V.C. Andrews' 98-page novel had…