Crain’s reports that Richard Pine at Inkwell Management in the US and Mark Lucas to Lucas Alexander Whitley in the UK are auctioning a book by amateur singing sensation Susan Boyle. (The agents did not respond to queries from Crain’s.)Crains (if you click through from Google News you won’t get stopped at the reg wall) Celebrity bodyguard Mickey Brett’s book proposal about a variety of famous clients, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, makes its way to the NY Daily News, though the book itself will not find its way to store shelves. After legal threats to block any publication, […]
Proposals/auctions
Next Niffenegger Novel Draws Wide Interest
While auctions of commercial properties have been the focus of press attention in recent days, the market for the right literary fiction is also showing strength as editors and imprints across town have been engaged in the multi-day auction for the new novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Already announced for October 1 publication in the UK where Jonathan Cape had rights from an earlier deal, HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY is described at Amazon UK as “a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity,” promising “echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens.” Niffenegger’s bestselling debut […]
The Next Time the NYT Whines About Fact-Checking in Books
The newspaper has corrected a January piece “about women who commiserated over dating Wall Street bankers caught in the financial crisis” who claimed they had formed a support group, Dating a Banker Anonymous, with about 30 women participating. It’s just a blog, and a joke at that. If published in a book the Times would call it a hoax; as published in their pages it is “a satire that embellishes true experiences for effect.” The paper blames those featured for not having made “the nature of the blog…clear at the outset.” As Newsweek notes, the women behind the blog have […]
Condit Ready to Tell His Story
The confirmation of the possible pending arrest of Ingmar Guandique–already in federal custody in California–for the murder of Congressional intern Chandra Levy eight years ago has put former California congressman Gary Condit back in the news. And agent Rachelle Gardner at WordServe Literary (rachelle@wordserveliterary.com) is submitting a book proposal by Condit to publishers this week. According to Gardner, Condit promises to reveal “the reason he has stayed silent and never spoken out on his own behalf in eight years” and to detail “what really happened between himself and Ms. Levy” (he previously admitted having a relationship with her). He also […]
Celebrity Books
Publicist Jayme Phillips confirms that her client, actor Patrick Swayze, intends to co-author a memoir with his wife Lisa. (Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.) But Phillips says, “There’s no publisher. There’s no dates. There’s no anything else.”Reuters Separately, an entertainment wire service claims that Molly Ringwald is writing a book on life as a fortysomething for HarperCollins for publication later this year.Wire
Step One: Palin Hires Barnett
Reuters says that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has hired attorney Bob Barnett to represent her. Barnett did not comment; nor did Palin’s office. (In early December it was reported that Barnett is representing Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, who is shopping a proposal for THE AUDACITY TO WIN.)Reuters