In a move perfectly timed to complement my blog post from earlier today, Authonomy has just announced that HarperCollins has signed three of its authors.
Steven Dunne, who had previously self-published his detective thriller, The Reaper, gets a two-book deal; Miranda Dickinson, author of a romantic comedy called Coffee At Kowalski's, has a three-book deal; and Melanie Davies and Lynne Barratt-Lee have signed up their co-written memoir Never Say Die.
It's not made clear on the Authonomy blog if these signings came as a direct result of the authors' presence on Authonomy: mention is made of Davies' and Barratt-Lee's representation by literary agent extraordinaire Andrew Lownie, so it's probable that they were picked up following Lownie's submission of their book to HarperCollins, rather than through the Authonomy site. But I'm sure that full details will emerge over the coming weeks.
I wish all four writers the best of success with their books, and will be watching their progress closely.
6 comments:
It's great to hear of authors being signed - especially in the current economic climate. I also wish all four huge success.
From what I can gather, the four writers weren't in the top ten and so didn't get the editors' comments: they were pulled from the ranks (that sounds rude) by browsing editors.
Which makes it even better!
Lynne Barratt-Lee already has several romantic comedies to her name, of course, so she's not an unknown in the publishing field
That doesn't necessarily count for anything, of course. You're only as good as your last book and publishers can drop writers like an embarrassing friend at the first whiff of so-so sales. Having an agent helped Lynne and Melanie more, I'm sure.
You've got to be kidding me! I would have suggested that it wouldn't happen. Advise more, if you don't mind, on what this means!
Spin, I thought it highly unlikely that Authonomy would publish books that it found in its slushpile: but I'm still not quite convinced that that's what's happened here.
It's stated that Lynne and Melanie are represented by Andrew Lownie, so it's possible--likely, perhaps, especially given Lynne's publication record--that he submitted their book to HarperCollins, who bought the book, and the Authonomy connection is just a PR hook to hang the announcement on.
The other two writers might well have representation too: it's not made clear. It's not explicitly stated that any of these books were fished out of the Authonomy slush-pile, so it could be that none of them were. I do hope that's not the case: it would be good to think that Authonomy was working as so many of its writers hoped it would: but, cynic that I am, I remain unconvinced.
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