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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World Book Day plans reinvigoration for 2012 event

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 04/11/2011 - 15:27 World Book Day is set for a 2012 revamp, with new management, branding and digital promotional ideas hoping to achieve more than one million book token redemptions. WBD will return on 1st March 2012—led by children’s marketing... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books24x7: Professional Books Go Digital

Given ebooks’ recent growth in the trade, professional books are clearly ahead of the digital curve. Books24x7 was one of the earliest companies in the professional ebook space, licensing and repackaging ebooks for IT professionals on a subscription basis for nearly two decades. A subsidiary of... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #professional books #subscription basis #staying connected


Physical book sales slump £12m in October

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Thu, 03/11/2011 - 09:57 Printed book sales in October slumped 8% year-on-year, due largely to poor sales within the paperback fiction and biographies/memoirs sectors, Nielsen BookScan data has revealed. In total, £144.7m was spent on physical books in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Prime Book Lending: Your FAQs Answered

Users can start borrowing books from Amazon right now, so here's what you need to know about using the service with your Kindle device. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon sweetens Prime with Kindle book lending

Is Amazon Prime the best deal in tech? It just may be: Amazon now offers the capability for customers to loan out over 5,000 books for their Kindle or Kindle Fire devices. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library will allow for one book per month to be lent out, and there are no due dates. To borrow a... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Further falls in library use as book stock still suffers

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 02/11/2011 - 14:09 The latest annual statistics for the public library service show further falls in overall usage of the service amid a continuing decline in spending. Both the number of library "service points" on offer and the number of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google E-Books comes to Canada

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 02/11/2011 - 08:20 Google has launched its ebook store in Canada, with the regional arms of Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin and Simon & Schuster signing up to the digital service. The publishers join Canadian houses such as D&M... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quercus signs deal for Koomson novels

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 02/11/2011 - 13:15 Quercus has acquired two novels by Dorothy Koomson, who has moved from Sphere. Executive director David North bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Antony Harwood. Koomson’s first novel for Quercus will be published in autumn... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Foyles to close One New Change today

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 02/11/2011 - 14:06 Foyles has brought the closure of its One New Change branch forward by five months, announcing its last day of trade as today (2nd November). The mini-chain originally announced last month it would shut down in April next year... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Copyright "drives growth", Mollet tells select committee

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 01/11/2011 - 15:57 Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet has defended the fundamental value of copyright at a select committee evidence session into the Hargreaves Review. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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IPA calls for immediate release of Zarakolu

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 01/11/2011 - 15:15 The International Publishers Association has called for the immediate release of its Freedom to Publish prizewinner in Istanbul following his incarceration by the Turkish authorities. Ragip Zarakolu, the current chairman of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booked Up 'encourages more reading'

Booked Up, the government-funded programme that gives a free book to Year 7 pupils, has found... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-book charts published in Wall Street Journal

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 31/10/2011 - 08:20 The first official sales charts including ebook sales data have been published in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, with Nielsen BookScan now supplying ebook sales reports to the US paper. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Yale has a rummage through authors' books

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 31/10/2011 - 08:00 Yale University Press will be nosing around authors' bookshelves with the publication of Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books next month, with authors including Philip Pullman, Jonathan Lethem and Junot Díaz... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Moving Quickly At Bettie Youngs Books

When talking business with Bettie Youngs, publisher of Bettie Youngs Books, you’ll quickly get an idea of the scale of her ambition, as you’ll hear a lot of numbers. She wrote her first book in graduate school and has since authored 36 books, and now, at BYBooks, seven of her company’s last 12... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter James signs short stories deal

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 28/10/2011 - 10:36 Pan Macmillan has acquired a collection of short stories from bestselling crime and thriller writer Peter James, with publishing director Wayne Brookes buying UK and Commonwealth rights through agent Carole Blake at Blake... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two six-figure deals for Gollancz

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 28/10/2011 - 10:39 Gollancz has signed two six-figure pre-empt deals, with editorial director Gillian Redfearn acquiring trilogies by début authors. The first acquisition was made just before the Frankfurt Book Fair, with Redfearn buying UK... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hornby calls for a nationwide network of story 'ministries'

Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 28/10/2011 - 08:10 Author Nick Hornby wants to establish a national network of story centres for children, following a successful first year for the Ministry of Stories in Hoxton, London, which Hornby co-founded with Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne.... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Magazine Publishers Look to Where Digital is Booming: The Book Business

After the initial flurry of excitement surrounding the release of their digital editions, magazine publishers are now beginning to focus on the strategies behind the products. In addition to complete digital editions, many are seeking other avenues to repackage and sell digital content. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Johnny Vegas book delayed until next year

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 27/10/2011 - 08:30 HarperCollins has delayed publication of its autobiography of comedian Johnny Vegas, Becoming Johnny Vegas, due for release this autumn, until this time next year. The publisher said the decision was taken in order to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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