With the Frankfurt Book Fair officially opening on Wednesday (and dealmaking already underway at the Frankfurter Hof), “mood”-watchers like the Guardian are already proclaiming last year’s recession-induced “austerity” over. Publisher of Harper UK’s Blue Door Patrick Janson Smith says, “People have short memories. It was instant panic last year but now it’s back to business.” But the schedule has also affected the key pre-Frankfurt selling season. With a late Labor Day followed quickly by the Jewish holidays and an earlier-than-usual Frankfurt itself, there have been barely a few “shopping weeks” prior to this year’s fair. We decided to look past […]
Deals
Unusual Deal for Financial Crisis Report Gives Treasury An Advance and Royalties
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and its staff journalist Matt Cooper have made a deal with Little, Brown for “authorized” publication of their report about the 2008 collapse on December 15 in both print and digital versions. As is usually the case with government documents, the publisher’s version will compete with a free downloadable version available on government web sites. But everything else about the deal, which the commission announced in a terse statement last week, is less traditional. As the Washington Post writes, the government retained two agents–Will Lippincott at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin and Joe Spieler of the Spieler […]
People
Diane Salvatore, who left the magazine world briefly to serve as publisher of Broadway Books, is becoming editor-in-chief of Rodale’s Prevention magazine. Richard Price will write a new series of detective thrillers that Holt will publish starting in fall 2011 under the pen name Jay Morris.
WaPo, PublicAffairs Team Up For Book on Health Care Reform
The Washington Post announced this morning that its guide to new health care reform legislation passed by the House on Sunday night will be published by PublicAffairs in April, first as an e-book and shortly thereafter in paperback format. According to the release, LANDMARK: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All “will provide a comprehensive look at the provisions of the bill as it emerges from the Senate” and “feature exclusive interviews with senior White House officials, lawmakers, lobbyists and industry leaders.”
Bill O'Reilly Follows Steve Rubin to Holt
From our Deals page: Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s new “major book that will surprise people,” about which no further details are being released for another month or two, following his longtime publisher Steve Rubin to Holt, with Gillian Blake editing, for publication in 2011, by Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor. The deal is for one book, though Rubin remarks, “I hope it will be the continuation of a very long and happy relationship” with O’Reilly.
PFD Is Representing Horror Film Maker
It shows you what the once-illustrious British literary agency has become, as their Frankfurt announcement is representation for Hammer Films–maker of movies like Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein in the 50s, and moribund since the mid-80s, now returning to filmmaking. PFD’s Caroline Michel says they will “bring new life to the brand with exciting contemporary writers,” trying to pitch the horror movie company as just like the James Bond franchise.Variety