Jocelyn McClurg

USA TODAY

Here’s a look at what’s new on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list…

Feathering her ‘Nest’: A million-dollar advance for a first-time author is paying off big time for publisher Ecco, as Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s debut novel The Nest enters USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list this week at No. 2.

That’s an eye-popping paycheck and an impressive list debut for a new writer; Sweeney comes in second behind popular thriller writer Harlan Coben, whose Fool Me Once lands at No. 1. (The full list will publish on Thursday.)

Even more notable: Sweeney is a late bloomer. At age 55, she has her first instant best seller.

The Nest is the story of four adult siblings in New York City tussling over the fate of their shared inheritance, with bad-boy older brother Leo Plumb the most dysfunctional of the bunch.

The book features jacket blurbs from Amy Poehler (“Intoxicating”) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love). Nick Offerman has tweeted about The Nest (“a ripping good yarn”) and Sweeney appeared on Seth Meyers’ late-night show on March 21, the day before publication.

Meyers asked Sweeney about writing her first novel later in life. While raising her kids, she worked as a free-lance copywriter. With her children grown, she decided to undertake an M.F.A. program and make the leap into fiction.

“I thought I should do the thing I’ve always wanted to do because I’m going to be dead soon,” she told Meyers.

“That’s a very upbeat way of looking at it,” he joked.

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney on Writing The Nest

Sweeney, who lives in L.A. after many years in New York, knows the media crowd; her husband, Mike Sweeney, is head writer on Conan O’Brien’s talk show.

The Nest also has bookseller support — it’s a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Amazon "Best Books of the Month" choice, and the No. 1 Indie Next Pick of independent booksellers for April.

On Thursday, Deadline.com reported that Amazon Films had acquired rights, with Jill Soloway (Transparent) co-producing.

One reviewer hedged her bets: Janet Maslin had a lukewarm response in The New York Times.

“The Nest is a novel in the Squabbling Sibling genre. Unless such stories are told by someone of the caliber of Chekhov or Dostoyevsky, they tend to be domestic comedies padded with lucky coincidences and studded with old grudges,” Maslin wrote.