So I was interested in The Bookseller’s recent report about how UK publisher Headline has decided to import more American authors into its crime-fiction list, now that competitor Random House has wooed away one of Headline’s top U.S. novelists:
Headline was already committed to expanding its presence in the crime and thriller market when its rival Random House Group poached one of its leading authors, James Patterson, last year. Six months earlier, in December 2005, Headline had appointed Vicki Mellor, a lifelong crime and thriller writing addict, as a specialist editor.I already knew that Headline was acquisition-hungry, having reported last month on the publisher’s successful luring of Joe Finder (Powerplay) away from the UK’s Orion Publishing. But I didn’t know that hunger verged on voraciousness.
But the loss of the thriller giant--the sum paid by Random gave “a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘multi-million-pound deal’”, a rival publisher said at the time--was undoubtedly a blow to Headline. However, Kerr MacRae, Headline deputy m.d., is unbowed. “Crime and thrillers are ripe for reinvention,” he says. “We were doing this anyway, but [Patterson’s departure] gave us the opportunity to take on more authors at a level to grow them.”
What follows is a bold claim, even for Headline: the publisher is promising that its four new American thriller authors--Scott Frost, Karen Rose, Brian Freeman and Patrick Quinlan--will put £12m through booksellers’ tills during the next two years. Headline has committed to a “substantial” marketing spend in its quest to turn them into “megabrands”.
Creating such brands is something Headline has experience of, thanks to 10 years spent publishing Patterson. “It’s all about the firepower, the marketing power, of Headline as a publisher,” MacRae says. “We don’t listen to people who say it can’t be done--the gatekeepers who thought three [new Pattersons] a year was outrageous, let alone five.” Patterson saw sales through Nielsen BookScan of £10m in 2006.
With all of this in my thoughts, I decided to call my friend Becky Fincham, who is a senior publicity executive at Headline, to find out what’s going on. Becky laughed at my questions and told he that she’d recently returned from New York City, after talking with her company’s new talent there. I twisted her arm to write a piece about her trip to Manhattan from a publicist’s point of view, and this is what she sent me:
Headlining in New YorkTo learn more about Headline’s attack on the crime and thriller market, employing U.S. writers as ammunition, click here.
By Becky Fincham
So people always think publicity is a glamorous job--at one point in my career as a publicist (when I was searching for a 24-hour dry cleaner for an author’s pants in Nottingham at 1 a.m. a Saturday night), I very much doubted it. However, when I was asked to go to New York on a trip to meet four of Headline’s up-and-coming crime and thriller authors, I knew how lucky I was. In early June, I was bundled on a plane with Headliners including crime and thriller editor Vicki Mellor and publishing director Marion Donaldson along with members of the trade, including people from Amazon, Waterstone’s, Borders, and WH Smiths, on a voyage to meet Headline’s stars of the future: Brian Freeman, Scott Frost, Karen Rose, and Patrick Quinlan.
Having been entertained and riveted by each of their books over the previous months, it was rather exciting to get the chance to meet them all in person and lay some of my nagging curiosities to rest--who was the inspiration behind Scott Frost’s compelling single-mother detective, Alex Delillo? How did researching in the cold of Duluth intensify the sense of place in Brian Freeman’s new novel? How much of Patrick Quinlan’s work was derived from his life growing up in the Bronx, who were his influences? And how did Karen Rose keep track of the details of her revolving cast of characters in each novel?
So having worn off the jet lag over an easy dinner, Saturday morning came, and Vicki and I met the lovely and interesting Scott Frost for breakfast in Bryant Park. Having recently moved to Montana after 16 years in L.A., Scott told us about his former days as a screenwriter--it seems very much that writing his own novels, with his own actors, has given him the autonomy surely every writer desires. Just like Alex Delillo, he grew up seeing his actor-father on TV, and Alex’s voice comes partly from the storytelling matriarchy of his family--she is an extra person in his life when he is mid-writing a novel. One point that he made really stayed with me: “Writers write about murderers or presidents without being one, I wonder why in this time of equality should it be such a surprise that a man can write a woman convincingly?”
Then Marion and I went on to tea at the Waldorf Astoria in the afternoon, to meet Patrick Quinlan, who was just as full of stories as I’d hoped--my personal favorite being about him being pursued across Cuba by some shady fellows, over a misunderstanding about cigars. Having grown up in the Bronx, it seems his writing really is littered with fragments of places he’s lived and people he’s met, giving it that gritty, realistic atmosphere--but also he seemed to be relieved to have left New York behind, living now as he does in Maine, giving him a distance that compels him to write about the place he left behind. We also chatted about Patrick’s MySpace page and his new Web site.
Pre-dinner, Vicki and I met Karen Rose and her U.S. agent Robin for drinks. Published as a romantic suspense writer in the U.S., Karen told us that she was very happy with her UK covers, which reveal the grittiness of her writing, and was comfortable with both interpretations of the same novels. I left the meeting with the ever-present sense of mystery about how such a friendly, warm and happy woman could write such dark passionate novels ... maybe the killer heels were a clue!
And so the main event came--namely, a dinner in one of New York’s most exclusive and chic hotels, the Hotel Gansevoort, in the trendy meat-packing district. Passing the queues of people waiting to get on the rooftop, we were swished up to Ono restaurant, where nearly 30 of us--agents, book buyers, Headliners--devoured courses of Japanese cuisine alongside the authors. The dinner was the chance for everyone to get to chat to the Big Four, all of whom worked hard, moving tables with each course to make sure everyone got the chance to meet them properly. And in true Headline style, events were eased along by the free-flowing wine!
Then, post-dinner, we went up to the roof terrace off the Gansevoort penthouse suite, which overlooked the Hudson River and gave us the most magnificent view of New York at night I’d seen yet. It was now that I got chance to have a chat to Brian Freeman, who I’d met previously when he was in London for the book fair. Brian is a particularly ardent social networker and fantastic at meeting new people, and had spent the evening merrily chatting away to everyone. Just before coming to New York, his ad campaign for Stripped had gone live on all the tubes with the slogan, “Are you XXXited?” So Brian was excited to hear that we’d all seen them on our way over. I can’t imagine that ever stops being exciting. And with his third novel, Stalked, not out until this September, I was amazed to hear he was already well under way with his fourth Stride novel.
So, as the evening stretched on, it was on to mojitos, then black mojitos when we’d drained the bar of white rum and the authors continued to do such a fantastic job talking to everyone. I think it’s certain to say the evening was a success. Everyone came away really chuffed to meet the authors, really pleased to have had the chance to talk to them about their books face to face, and to meet the people behind the murder and mystery! And so the evening came to an end--the celebrations which came to be known as the Miami beach party (there was a pool and dancing) was halted only when the sun started to come up over on the Hudson River, and someone suggested it was time for taxis.
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