A week after Stephen King ended
a busy guessing game by picking a new publisher from a group of suitors, a
lingering question is whether he also has introduced a new way for top authors
and their publishers to do business.
In leaving Viking after nearly
20 years and joining Simon & Schuster, the horror
writer agreed to a highly unusual deal that will pay him less upfront than he
has commanded in the past while offering him the prospect of far greater riches
through a profit-sharing arrangement.
King, who had wanted to
top his previous per-book advance (of more than $15 million) and also sought an
especially lofty royalty rate (26% of gross sales), accepted a much smaller
advance (possibly $2 million) and an undisclosed cut of the net profits from
books sold.
“Normally, for big names such
as Stephen King, the advances reflect what a publisher can expect to earn back
from sales, but this advance is a fraction of that,” explained Carolyn K.
Reidy, president of Simon & Schuster’s trade division. “Instead, expenses
are deducted and there will be a split of the profits.”
Jonathan Newcomb, president and chief executive officer of
Simon & Schuster, went so far as to say that the company and King
had created “what may be an important new model for S&S and potentially the
entire industry.”
Indeed, trimming the advance,
or guarantee, paid to an author lowers a publisher’s financial risk in an era
of static book sales. But can a smaller advance also cool the incentive to go
out and sell a book like crazy?
“I’m not inside Stephen King’s
camp, so I don’t know the logic behind his deal,” said Robert Gottlieb, the influential William
Morris Agency executive whose literary clients include Dean Koontz and Tom
Clancy. “But
I prefer to get as much money as possible upfront and a royalty rate based on
gross sales. It guarantees performance on the part of the publisher, financial
security for the writer and, hopefully, the success of the book.”
Echoing the view of other agents and
writers, Gottlieb added, “It’s important to get as much money as possible
upfront because publishers can be very inefficient.”
King, who expressed regret in
the media that his initial hunt for a fatter advance had turned into such a
spectacle, now can focus on his next novel. “Bag of Bones,” which Simon &
Schuster’s Scribner division plans to publish in late summer or early fall of
next year, features a child in trouble, a haunted house, an April-October
romance and what King says is “everything I know about marriage.”
Andy Rooney, Woodworker: Andy
Rooney comes out from behind that “60 Minutes” desk of his and shows where he
made it. He has the cover of American Woodworker magazine, whose December issue
offers a visit with the CBS curmudgeon in the wood shop of his home in upstate
New York (along with stories on dust-free sanding and contractors’ table saws).
Those who have ever wearied at
the prospect of sorting out their own wood shops will take comfort in knowing
that Rooney’s “is filled with the familiar clutter that would make any serious
woodworker feel right at home: clamps, hand tools, encroaching lumber, coffee
cans full of small stuff and objects whose purpose can no longer be determined.”
In an accompanying piece,
Rooney writes that his wife, seeing him coming home time and again with pieces
from sawmills, barns and lumberyards, invariably asks him if he has enough
already. “I’ll have enough wood when Imelda Marcos has all the shoes she wants,”
he tells her.
American Woodworker is
published seven times a year by Rodale Press.
Afterwords: The literary
enthusiasm of Oprah Winfrey has propelled two novels by a little-known Southern
writer on to the New York Times’ national bestseller list--belatedly.
Kaye Gibbons’ “Ellen Foster” and “A Virtuous Woman” were selected by Winfrey
for discussion on her on-air book club, and sales have soared since then.
“Ellen Foster,” Gibbons’ first novel and
published in 1987, is a story of survival as told by the 11-year-old title
character.
“A Virtuous Woman,” a love
story between a young widow and an older farmer that shares a few characters
from the earlier work, also was originally published by Algonquin.
The Vintage trade-paperback
editions of the books will debut at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, on Sunday.
* Paul D. Colford is a
columnist for Newsday. His e-mail address is paul.colford@newsday.com. His
column is published Thursdays.
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