From Uber driving to huge book deal: Adrian McKinty's life-changing phone call

Despite awards and acclaim for his crime fiction, the impoverished novelist lost his home and was set to quit – then the phone rangIt was1.30 in the morning in Melbourne and Adrian McKinty had just got home after dropping off his last Uber customer of the night at the airport. His phone rang. It was Shane Salerno, agent to authors including Don Winslow, and it was a call that would pull McKinty into “some major league craziness”, ending in a six-figure English-language book deal and, last week, a seven-figure film deal from Paramount for his forthcoming novel The Chain.“Don told me you’ve given up writing,” said Salerno. McKinty, an award-winning crime novelist, had recently blogged about his decision to quit being an author. Beginning with his debut, Dead I May Well Be, written while he taught high school English in Colorado, and continuing with his award-winning series about Northern Irish detective Sean Duffy, McKinty’s books might have won him prizes and great reviews, but they weren’t making him any money. The family moved from the US to Australia in 2008 because McKinty’s wife, author and academic Leah Garrett, was offered a job there. Now the family had been evicted from the home they’d had lived in for eight years, and he was working as an Uber a cab driver (“the world’s worst,” he says now) and bartending in an attempt to actually bring in some cash.When they were evicted from their home, 'I was thinking to myself, "Oh God Adrian, what have you done with your... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-07-08 06:00:17 UTC ]
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E-Book Readers Face Sticker Shock

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[ AllThingsD | 2011-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US World Book Night titles revealed

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French book trade protests at VAT hike

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book sales soar week on week, remain down on 2010

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mainstream to publish "street-smart" guide to single life

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Night 2012 to target prisons and hospitals

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Amazon.com buys children's books list from Marshall Cavendish

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book sales continue to climb ahead of Christmas

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Apple, Book Publishers Face European Antitrust Probe

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Media Decoder Blog: Many Online Book Buyers First Shop Around in Stores

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Google’s Admeld Deal Gets the Green Light

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Mukherjee scoops £10,000 Guardian First Book Award

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Changes to Daggers announced as Martin wins Ellis Peters

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Irish Sports Book of the Year shortlist revealed

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VIDEO: Kerouac's 'lost' book published

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[ BBC News | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ‘Underground’ Drives Sales at Microcosm

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Book Census shows rates creep up

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Traverse City Is for Book Lovers

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