Exponential Return on a Goodwill Investment

Before 1998, Catherine Ryan Hyde had two books published by a small press that got little attention. She was living with her mother and working part time as a dog trainer and writing consultant to pay off debts.

And then she had a very good week.

In July 1998, her still-unpublished novel was optioned for film in a six-figure deal. Five days later, Simon & Schuster--whom her agents had not even approached--acquired the book rights in another six-figure deal.

Now on a national book tour, Hyde, who lives in the central coast town of Cambria, is waiting for reaction to “Pay It Forward,” which came out this month, and for filming to begin on the Hollywood Bel Air/Warner Bros. movie starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment (the 11-year-old star of “The Sixth Sense”).

“Everything feels very high stakes,” said Hyde, 44, who got the idea for her book 20 years ago in Los Angeles, “but most of the time, it feels ecstatic.”

What happened to Hyde is the latest example of how a book with a spiritual theme--even one by a relatively unknown writer--can generate a buzz in Hollywood and publishing circles while still in an agent’s hands. No one wants to make the mistake of passing on a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” (originally rejected by 33 publishers) or “The Celestine Prophecy” (originally self-published) or another potential bestseller in the hot market for inspirational, feel-good books.

For “Pay It Forward,” the publisher is gambling with a first printing of 100,000 copies, a significant commitment for an author who’s not widely known.

Chuck Adams, Simon & Schuster vice president and senior editor, said “Pay It Forward” hooked him with a compelling story and a believable lack of cynicism.

“I found it very moving and very genuine,” he said. “So often with books that are inspirational, if you will, you feel like someone sat down and said, ‘How can we make some money?’ [Hyde’s book] had the integrity of being written from the heart. I loved it from the start.”

“Pay It Forward” is about what happens when a 12-year-old Atascadero boy takes on extra-credit homework to think of a plan to change the world. Trevor McKinney decides to do something nice for three people who wouldn’t have to pay the favor back to him--instead, they would pay it forward to three others. The story is a quick read, told with lean sentences and an edge by characters including a Vietnam veteran, a recovering alcoholic and a grocery-store clerk; Hyde pulls off a poignant, gutsy ending without bathos.

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The book got a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which said: “Her Capra-esque theme--that one person can make a difference--may be sentimental, but for once, that’s a virtue.”

With so much at stake, Simon & Schuster publicists are pushing hard to keep the buzz buzzing. In the book, for instance, Trevor’s idea snowballs into a nationwide movement to pay it forward; as part of the “Pay It Forward” marketing plan, publicists sent kits to booksellers on how to encourage schools, nonprofits and others to turn the idea into reality. (Three years ago, a similar goodwill movement took off, inspired by bumper stickers and a book promoting “random acts of kindness.”)

With advance copies of the book in hand, a few teachers and other individuals around the country have organized projects based on the book’s theme: In New York City, a group of public high school students are painting a mural with scenes of people helping others, and in Marin County, students at Hill Middle School worked with their parents to give jackets to homeless people in their town of Novato.

In Irvine, Sandy Satterwhite, a part-time Barnes & Noble employee, passed the book on to her minister, who agreed to give a sermon on how to pay it forward. Satterwhite, 53, cried when she read the book. She had just been thinking about how nobody seems to have the time anymore to hold open a door or smile and say hi.

“It’s noticeable,” she said, “when people are nice.”

Now, she’s looking for ways to connect with strangers.

“If your state of mind is, ‘How can I do nice things for people?’ the whole world has got to change,” Satterwhite said.

Hyde tried not to think much about whether people might take the book’s theme to heart.

“I’m not saying that I didn’t have it in the back of my mind that people might want to emulate this idea,” she said, “but I can’t honestly say that I expected such an across-the-board reaction of people finishing the book and really wanting to try this. I think that would have been too optimistic on my part.”

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At bookstore signings nationwide, readers tell Hyde how they are starting their own pay-it-forward chains. One woman said she paid the toll fare for a driver behind her, who later caught up with her and wanted to know what prompted her kindness.

And Hyde’s first book tour is just starting. Hyde, who is low-key and earnest, is the kind of writer who makes a point of answering fan mail and being on time for book signings.

“The other stuff, the Hollywood stuff and watching the sales . . . it’s wonderful but can take on kind of an unreal quality,” she said. “But when a person says, ‘I read your book, and this is how it made me feel,’ that’s very real.”

The idea for “Pay It Forward” had been brewing for two decades, after a car emergency got Hyde thinking about how a spontaneous act of kindness could be repaid.

One night, she was driving alone in downtown Los Angeles when her car caught fire. As she jumped out, a stranger ran toward her, leaned into the flaming engine and smothered the blaze with a blanket. He left before she could thank him.

Later that year, Hyde stopped one night to help a lone woman who was stranded on a roadside with car trouble. The woman wanted to pay Hyde back with money. But Hyde told her to do a favor for someone else instead.

Someday, Hyde thought, she would write a book based on that idea.

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Meanwhile, she took odd jobs, including a stint as a Hearst Castle tour guide, and attended writer’s workshops and groups. Her only other formal training as a writer was a creative-writing class in high school in Buffalo, N.Y.

In 1991, after being laid off from her job as a pastry chef, Hyde decided to buckle down and write. Her mother, whom she lived with, encouraged her and asked only that she help pay utility bills.

Hyde began writing “Pay It Forward” but finished other writing projects first. A now-defunct San Francisco publisher, Russian Hill Press, published her novel “Funerals for Horses” in 1997, and a short-story collection, “Earthquake Weather,” in 1998. Both were critically acclaimed but were not big sellers.

In January 1998, she finished “Pay It Forward,” and her agents began shopping the manuscript around. A Simon & Schuster editor heard that the book was creating a stir in Hollywood--and in one dizzying week, Hyde was on her way.

Since then, her life hasn’t changed much, she said, except for the fact that she has paid off her debts. She still lives with her mother. She doesn’t weigh her words with a practiced public-relations eye (Hyde will tell you she prefers the Nancy Drew books to “Moby Dick”). She is amazed when a third-grade teacher comes to her book signing with a bundle of handmade cards from her class. (The book is not for elementary school children, but teachers are reading excerpts from it and explaining the theme.)

“I guess I didn’t realize how much people want to connect over this,” Hyde said, “with me and with each other. It’s kind of overwhelming, but I’m not complaining . . . sometimes you wait a long time.”

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Renee Tawa can be reached at renee.tawa@latimes.com.