By: Shawn Donley,
on 8/31/2015
In January of this year, eight months before its release date, the buzz was already starting to build for Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family. Bookseller colleagues were passing around the few advanced reader copies we could get a hold of and telling each other, "You have to read this!" Four major review [...]
By: Maryann Yin,
on 8/3/2015
By: Deborah Jensen,
on 1/28/2015
Literary superagent Bill Clegg labored over his debut novel Did You Ever Have a Family for seven years, unsure anyone would bid on or buy it.
As he told the New York Times, he’s secured mega-deals on behalf of other writers, but gauging reaction to his own novel was difficult.
\"It doesn’t make you any more confident — if anything, it makes you less confident. I represent great writers, and I couldn’t carry their glove on the field. When the bar is set that high, it’s daunting.\"
According to Alexandra Alter at the Times, four publishers bid on his book, and one–Gallery Books’ Jennifer Bergstrom–was so sold on it she offered a two-book deal. She also approached Carolyn Reidy, who is president and chief executive of Gallery’s parent company, Simon & Schuster, asking to create a new literary fiction imprint. Reidy agreed and Clegg’s will be the lead fall title for the imprint, Scout Press.
Bergstrom said, \"Because Bill’s book was the impetus for the imprint, it’s also the epitome of what we want to publish. It’s literary but very accessible, not precious, not fussy, not esoteric.\"
Clegg’s novel centers on a woman whose family was killed and home destroyed in an accidental explosion.
\"So much of my day job is occupying the ambitions of other people’s writing,\" Clegg told the Times. \"To just occupy my own feels almost brazenly selfish.\"
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 7/17/2014
David Levithan, a New York Times bestselling author and Scholastic editorial director, has landed a deal with Dutton Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Levithan plans to pen a musical novel entitled Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story. Fans will recall that this musical was featured in the collaborative novel written by Levithan and The Fault in Our Stars author John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson. For this project, he plans to share the full script.
Publisher Julie Strauss-Gabel negotiated the deal with William Morris Endeavor literary agent Bill Clegg. She will edit the manuscript herself. A release date has been set for March 2015 to honor the fifth anniversary of the publication of Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 4/16/2013
New York City high school teacher Matthew Thomas landed a book deal with Simon & Schuster for his debut novel, We Are Not Ourselves.
Thomas worked on the novel for ten years and inked a deal for “seven figures,” according to Publisher Weekly. Publication is set for 2014. WME Agent Bill Clegg agent negotiated the deal with editor-in-Chief Marysue Rucci. Here’s more about the book:
Set in the second half of the 20th century, the novel is a sprawling portrait of the Irish-American Leary family—Ed, Eileen, and their son Connell—as they move from Jackson Heights, Queens to Bronxville, New York in pursuit of the American dream. Eileen’s unblinking determination to better the family’s status is challenged by her husband’s dedication to teaching—and ultimately, devastatingly, by a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 8/15/2011
Writer Tao Lin has landed a $50,000 deal with Vintage Books for his novel, Taipei, Taiwan. According to The New York Observer, Lin (pictured, via) will also receive an additional $10,000 bonus if the profits for his novel earn out his advance.
Lin hopes to finish the manuscript in fall 2012 and expects publication in 2013 or 2014; he intends to make it a “short” book one “could almost memorize” (between fifty and sixty thousand words). Literary agent Bill Clegg of the William Morris Endeavor negotiated the deal. Associate editor Tim O’Connell will edit the project.
In a previous interview with The New York Observer, Lin revealed: “The novel is autobiographical and begins in 2009 when the protagonist is 25. It spans ~2.5 years and is set in Taiwan, NYC, Las Vegas. It contains a marriage, somewhat extreme recreational drug usage, parents, a book tour. It’s written in a Lorrie Moore-esque prose style but denser, like my first story-collection but more refined. The protagonist in my 3rd novel experiences Siddhartha-like unhappiness and confusion.”
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