Some readers tell me, 'We always treated our maid like she was a member of the family.' You know, that's interesting, but I wonder what your maid's perspective was on that.

The Help took her five years to complete and the book was rejected by 60 literary agents before agent Susan Ramer agreed to represent Stockett. Reflective of her first novel Stockett was very close to an African-American domestic worker. A lawsuit was filed in a Mississippi court by Ablene Cooper a maid who used to work for Stockett's brother.

Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist.