(no subject)

[ksmith]

I haven't read The Time Traveler's Wife, but it did sell rather well. Well enough for Scribner to pay Audrey Niffenegger $4.8 million for her next book.

"It is an especially significant sum at a time of retrenchment and economic uncertainty in the publishing world."

Just...wow. And for skiffy, yet.

By way of Mediabistro.

UPDATE: dip into the Times article. It's the "only" in front of the $100,000 (The amount that Niffenegger was paid for TTTW) that gets to me. Yes, I know--mainstream and genre are different worlds. I know.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Is the expectation that the advance would be earned back by hardcover sales only, or are mmpb, book clubs, audio included as well? Foreign sales? It may be a dumb question, but I wonder how quickly the publisher needs to earn back this investment.

I keep hearing that publishers have abandoned the midlist. No more nurturing. One book, two books, three at the most--if you haven't broken out by then, you're replaced with a new, baggage-free writer.

I will admit that I see it to some degree, but not across the board. There is still a midlist, at least in genreland. I don't know about mainstream.