One-Book Author is weird — the name suggests it's about an author who only ever published one book (or the equivalent of that in other fields), but the description insists that the book must also be extremely popular, a requirement most examples seem to ignore. Dropping it would probably be the best solution, since that would bring the definition in line with what the name suggests and how people actually use the trope. It also means we won't have to figure out exactly what counts as "extremely popular".
Oh, and since this is about external circumstances surrounding a work and not the content of the work itself, it should be moved to Trivia.
Wick check
A creator who only released one work that was popular (4/50), 8%
- Short-Lived, Big Impact: Some of the examples in One-Book Author fit here too. Implies that the one book must have been popular enough to have a big impact
- Uncredited Role: The Ghost Town DJs, the One-Book Author known for the hit "My Boo", officially consisted of session musicians Virgo, Greg Street, Rodney Terry, and DJ Demp. However, by all accounts the song's creative and production expertise came from non other than Lil' Jon, who couldn't be credited as part of the group because he was also So So Def's A&R Director at the time, which relegated him to an Executive Producer credit.
- Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: Despite being one of the biggest pop singers of the 20th century, this was Tina Turner's only major starring role in a movie (unless one also counts her appearance as part of the ensemble cast in Tommy as the Acid Queen). Though generally considered a good performance, she would not appear in any more feature films.
- Tropes N to S: Reclusive Artist: In-universe example in "A Crane's Critique", which centres around Martin befriending an acclaimed One-Book Author, and his sons trying vainly to get on the man's good side (and of course, making him hate them more with every attempt). When he and Martin go to Duke's, Frasier remarks, "They'll probably bump into J. D. Salinger and Salman Rushdie and go out for margaritas!" Ultimately, they unintentionally convince him his new book is derivative and he destroys it.
A creator who only released (or participated in) one work that was unpopular or had no mention of its popularity (34/50, 68%)
This category does allow stuff like "Author Alice only published one novel, even though she also did some poetry collections, and was working on another book that was never released because she Died During Production"
- Trivia.Invader Zim: Dib Membrane is basically Andy Berman's only voice role (alongside a few minor characters in the show). While he has voiced Dib in other media appearances such as the Nicktoons Unite! series and the TV movie Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, he's never done anything not Zim-related.
- Trivia.Uzumaki: Fhi Fan, the male lead in the movie adaptation of the manga, never acted before or since.
- StarDerailingRole.Film Actresses: The Wicker Tree, the 2011 "spiritual sequel" to The Wicker Man (1973), introduced viewers to Brittania Nicol, who played the film's protagonist, Beth Boothby. The film's poor performance in both theaters and with critics led to its obscurity, and Nicol's career was over before it even started. This is her only on-screen credit. Explicitly states that the film itself did poorly, and doesn't even imply that Nicol's performance was a saving grace
- Trivia.Kelsea Ballerini: Her producers, Jason Massey and Forest Glen Whitehead, have no other credits.
- Limbo of the Lost: Understandably, it was the only game by British developer Majestic Studios. The "understandably" comes from how the game's rampant plagiarism got it pulled from store shelves, which the page description brings up. And the game itself was bad on top of that.
- NeedsMoreLove.Music: The Black Kids, an indie rock band from the US. Their songs are extremely catchy, with romantic lyrics and a very fun beat. So far, they've only recorded one studio album, Party Traumatic, and have been struggling to record a new disc ever since (By the way, don't go to sleep after hearing Party Traumatic, unless you want the songs to keep playing over and over again in your head the next day).
- New Sound Album: Butthole Surfers were initially known for psychedelic noise rock, but slowly started sliding towards more conventional alternative rock as time went on. The real big change in sound came with Lost Episode album After The Astronaut (and The Weird Revolution, which had revamped versions of many of the same songs) - their sound became much more electronic and danceable, although Word Salad Lyrics and some sophomoric humor remained. The change wasn't entirely out of the blue though - their contribution to the Spawn soundtrack had them working with Moby, while "Whatever (I Had A Dream)" from William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet had a heavy trip-hop influence. Their Black Sheep Hit "Pepper", often compared (or just plain misattributed) to Beck, could be considered a precursor too. And finally, much earlier than any of this, there was The Jackofficers, an obscure and short-lived experimental electronic side project of members Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus, who put out one album in 1990.
- Music.The Las: The band is notable for releasing only one studio album.
- Trivia.Plumbers Dont Wear Ties:
- The original PC version was the only title produced by United Pixtures.
- Many of the people involved (including Anderson) have (at most) few other IMDb credits. The ones with "a few" credits are a stretch, but I'll put it here because it's mostly correct
- OneHitWonder.Electronic Dance: Most of the numerous in-line mentions belong here. One of them does raise the question if an artist who only ever released released two singles can count — it's technically two works, but it's less than the content of an album, surely a one-album musician counts?
- Hopkins FBI: This is the only game ever produced and released by MP Entertainment.
- Chill Factor: The sole directorial effort of cinematographer Hugh Johnson and the sole writing credit of writers Drew Gitlin and Mike Cheda.
- Airport: This was the only film role for Patty Poulsen, who played Joan, one of the flight attendants. She was a stewardess for American Airlines and won a stewardess beauty contest in which one of the prizes was a role in this film. She was also used heavily in American Airlines' advertising of its new uniforms during the mid to late 1960s, photos that have, more recently, appeared in several different coffee table books celebrating the history of the airline hostess.
- Encore Cartoons: If Encore Cartoons isn't related to Encore Enterprises, that is. The rest of the page says Encore Cartoons only worked on three episodes within one show, which I'd count as "they only did one show"
- Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny: Jack Black and Kyle Gass's only screenwriting credits, and Liam Lynch's only feature directorial effort. While proud of the film, Black was so distraught by its failure that he vowed never to write a screenplay again.
- Vulgar: Bryan Johnson's only film as a writer/director.
- SkiFree: This remains the only released game by Chris Pirih.
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: The ADV English dub was Margaret Cassidy's only major anime role as the voice of Marie.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: Muriel is Thea White's only voice-acting role.
- Get Carter (1971): Carl Howard, who played J, the sniper who kills Carter at the end. He is only identified by the initial on his ring, in his only film role, and an appropriate mystery surrounds his real identity. His name does not appear on the credits of some prints. Mike Hodges explained that Howard was an extra on his TV film, Rumour, and the director gave him a line to say, but another extra was wrongly credited. Hodges promised he would make it up to him and cast him in Carter, but his name was missed off some of the original prints. When the film credits were printed in the Radio Times and TV Times Howard was also trimmed. Hodges said in 2002 "Carl and credits don't seem destined for each other".
- 25 to Life: For video games at least, Mendoza was Nicole's only role.
- Trivia.Grosse Pointe Blank: This is the only credit from writer Tom Jankiewicz,but he had steady work as an uncredited script doctor
. Borderline example — if he worked on a script as a script doctor, does it still count as "his" script? I guess not? - Trivia.C Me Dance: Christina De Marco (Sheri) had previously done some acting on a few of Robbins' television productions, but to date this is her only film role (and according to IMDB, the last project she's worked on period).
- Trivia.Those Who Hunt Elves: While Hideki Tsutsumi is a successful music producer, the anime adaptation of Those Who Hunt Elves is his only soundtrack credit. Season 2's secondary composer, Tsuyoshi Yokoyama also has no other credits to his name, and there's no other information about him.
- Star Trek: The Animated Series S2 E4 "Albatross": The only widely-released work by writer Dario Finelli, whose only other known credit is on the film Scorpio '70, something so obscure that it's never even had an official home video release.
- The Secret Garden (1993): Heydon Prowse, who played Colin, did only this film and a couple of shorts until, as an adult, he became involved in political satire and is now much better known for that in England. Example implies that it's his only film
- Common Knowledge: [Ghost wick later moved to CommonKnowledge.Music about how Nevermind is not Nirvana's only full-length album]
- Beauty and the Beast: Belle is the only major acting role for Paige O'Hara in a film, though she has had supporting roles in a few other series and Broadway credits to her name.
- Nakamura Productions: Hell Target (with Studio Nue, their only original anime title)
- On Deadly Ground: To date, this is the only film Steven Seagal has directed. An actor's only stab at directing
- Branded to Kill: Fear that the Full-Frontal Assault scene would end their careers meant that none of Nikkatsu's contracted actresses were willing to play Mami, so Suzuki hired burlesque performer Mariko Ogawa for this, her only film role.
- Invisible Man: Invisible Man was the only novel that Ralph Ellison ever published. He tried to avert this trope by writing a second novel, Juneteenth; it has only ever seen publication in greatly abridged editions, as he managed to write 2,000 pages of it without considering it finished. He did publish many essays and a book of short stories, though.
- Picnic at Hanging Rock: Lindsay was 70 when this was published, and it was her only novel. Her earlier books were all memoirs, and her only published book after this was an illustrated book for children. note
- Charles Laughton: He was a successful theatre director, whose biggest hit was a Broadway adaptation of The Caine Mutiny, and was also the director of ONE movie, the 1955 thriller The Night of the Hunter.
Other misuse (3/50, 6%)
- Thomas Paine: History, especially American history, mostly remembers him as "that guy who wrote Common Sense." That wasn't the only pamphlet he wrote. This seems like it's going for Author Usurpation
- Animalympics: The voice cast consists of Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer, and a pre-The Tracking Angle Michael Fremer (who was also the film's writer/co-director) in his only noteworthy acting role ever, who are the only four voice actors in the film, each portraying a wide array of characters. Implies that he also had non-noteworthy acting roles
- Katmandu: So... it's not "their only comic" for either of them?
- Outside writing some short stories and helping with her husband Mike on Dick Tracy, Katmandu remains as Carole Curtis' sole original work to date.
- Mary Hanson-Roberts, who wrote some some side-stories and the Here Comes the Candle crossover, only worked in this comic and her own, as well as doing non-furry illustrations until her death at 2020.
ZCE and other unclassifiable stuff (9/50, 18%)
- Died During Production: Ghost wick (humorously enough)
- He Also Did: Saul Bass may be best known for his modernistic movie posters and widely-imitated Artistic Titles, but his design office was at many times more involved in ongoing "corporate identity" programs for a wide variety of American companies and a few Japanese ones, from food companies to paper products companies to airlines (Continental, United, Frontier) to gas stations (Exxon/Esso, Sohio/BP, JOMO). He also directed a number of short documentary/non-fiction films, including the 1968 Academy Award winner "Why Man Creates". He was a One Film Director when it came to feature films, but the film in question, Phase IV, is considered a Science Fiction Cult Classic.
- One Work Wonder: Just redirects to One-Book Author
- YMMV: Ghost wick?
- Trivia: Ghost wick? By the way, having ghost wicks on both YMMV and Trivia is probably a sign that something is wrong...
- One-Song Bard: See One-Book Author for the closest you can get to Real Life examples.
- Unperson: Ghost wick
- OneBookAuthor.Creatives
- Western Animation Ghost wick
