MONROEVILLE, Ala. — It’s been just over a month since the release of “Go Set a Watchman,” the long-awaited second novel from Harper Lee. The book has been the publishing sensation of the year, but the literary world has largely moved on now, focused on new releases for the fall and winter.

But in Ms. Lee’s hometown here, the effects of publishing “Watchman” linger, like debris from a departing county fair. Even as life returns to its slow rhythms, many residents are adjusting to a new order of things when it comes to Ms. Lee, one firmly under the direction of Tonja B. Carter.

Ms. Carter is Ms. Lee’s lawyer, and over the last several years she has consolidated an unusual amount of control over the author’s affairs. In recent months she has extended her reach, sometimes to the most minute of details.

About seven weeks ago, for instance, on the day of a luncheon here to celebrate the imminent publication of “Watchman,” Ms. Carter learned about a recipe book, “To Fill a Mockingbird,” being sold by the small museum inside the old courthouse at the center of town. The courthouse had been the fictional setting for Ms. Lee’s 1960 classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”