‘Jaws at 35,000 feet’: the flight attendant whose thriller debut sold for seven figures

TJ Newman dreamt up her terror-in-the-skies novel Falling while guarding the cockpit as the pilots took a toilet break. She reveals how she kept going through furlough and 41 rejectionsFlight attendant Torri Newman was working on the red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York when the idea for her debut novel came to her. To be precise, she was blocking access to the cockpit, a security procedure required when pilots take a toilet break. “I was standing at the front of the airplane,” she says, “looking out at the passengers. It was dark and they were all asleep. And I had this thought, ‘All of their lives, our lives, are in the hands of the pilots.’ That’s not exactly new – but the flipside of that also came to mind. With that much power and responsibility, how vulnerable does that make a commercial pilot?”Newman, speaking via Zoom from her home in Phoenix, Arizona, was rattled. “I just couldn’t shake the thought. A few days later, I was working a different trip with a different set of pilots, and I said to the captain, ‘Hey, what would you do if your family was taken, and you were told that if you didn’t crash the plane, they would be killed?” What was his reaction? “He had no clue what he would do – the thought terrified him.”I almost gave up. But seeing two authors at a Q&A reminded my why I had to keep going Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-05-04 05:00:21 UTC ]
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Other Publishing stories related to: '‘Jaws at 35,000 feet’: the flight attendant whose thriller debut sold for seven figures'


Pan Mac pre-empts literary debut

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 20/09/2011 - 13:00 Pan Macmillan has pre-empted rights in a debut novel about a young black hairdresser called Dorrie in present-day Texas, for a five-figure sum. Editorial director for fiction Jenny Geras bought UK and Commonwealth rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Ireland acquires war debut

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 12/09/2011 - 08:40 Penguin Ireland has acquired a first novel about the "mysteries and alchemies of friendship", likening it to The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the writing of W G Sebald. Senior editor Brendan Barrington bought world rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador beats seven publishers to debut

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 01/09/2011 - 15:00 Picador has won an eight-way auction for an American debut set primarily in 1950s America, snapping up the title and one other for a six-figure sum. Editorial director Kate Harvey acquired Tigers in Red Weather by Liza... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hamish Hamilton acquires Naqvi debut

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 30/08/2011 - 08:00 Hamish Hamilton has acquired Home Boy by H M Naqvi, winner of the inaugural DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in January this year. Publishing director Simon Prosser bought British Commonwealth rights from Margaret... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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French and Watson lead strong first half for debuts

Written By: Philip Stone and Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 24/08/2011 - 08:31 Dawn French and S J Watson are the most successful debut novelists of the year so far across paperback and hardback, with debut novels generally having a more successful year than 2010. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One Day sells 60,000 copies in seven

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 23/08/2011 - 15:22 David Nicholls' One Day (Hodder), the adaptation of which hits cinemas later this week, was comfortably the bestselling book at UK booksellers last week. The novel, first published in 2009, sold 60,410 copies across all printed... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vintage snaps up two debuts

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 19/08/2011 - 10:24 Vintage has acquired two debuts, each to be published in spring 2012, with one by a Danish author living in Australia, and the other by an author born in Hong Kong and now living in the US. Editor Alison Hennessey has... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Horrible Histories hits 10,000 benchmark

Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 19/08/2011 - 08:45 Around 10,000 people have signed up to Scholastic's Horrible Histories virtual world since its official launch last week and the beta testing period over the summer. Publisher Scholastic intends to develop further "Horribles"... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stockett first debut in Kindle Million Club

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 16/08/2011 - 14:41 Kathryn Stockett has become the first debut author to join the Kindle Million Club after selling over a million copies of her novel The Help (Penguin). Janet Evanovich, Headline Review author of the Stephanie Plum novels, has... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Society of Authors short story petition gains 5,000 signatures

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 07:20 The Society of Authors' petition against the cuts to BBC Radio 4's short story programming has now amassed over 5,000 signatures. SoA general secretary Nicola Solomon and assistant general secretary Jo McCrum will present... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Headline preempts debut about child abduction

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 18/07/2011 - 12:15 Headline has pre-empted a debut novel about a man's whose nine month old daughter is abducted by carjackers in South Africa. Publisher at large Martin Fletcher bought world rights to Held Up by Christopher Radmann from Juliet... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Mac buys thriller about Library of Alexandria

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 14/07/2011 - 15:02 Pan Macmillan has bought world rights in a novel discovered in the slush pile of Luigi Bonomi Associates. Publishing director Wayne Brookes bought rights to The Lost Library and a second book by AM Blake from Thomas Stofer. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More than 3,000 titles suggested for WBN 2012

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 04/07/2011 - 15:29 More than 1,500 people have nominated titles for World Book Night 2012, with over 3,000 titles put forward just over a week after the ballot opened. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Financial Times Sees 100,000 Downloads In Week After HTML Launch

Financial Times has decided to go another way for their digital subscription offering, opting out of the Apple sub model and creating an app through HTML 5, allowing users to get the app experience through their Web browser. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"Five-figure" orders for Orange winner Obreht

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 10:04 Weidenfeld & Nicolson has already received "five-figures"-worth of orders for Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife, following the debut novel's triumph at the Orange Prize for Fiction last night. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookshop owners "earn £22,000 per year"

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 14:13 Independent bookshop owners paid themselves an average wage of £22,200 in 2010, according to a new survey. Figures revealed that the average sales of those bookshops which took part in last year’s Bookseller Fitness Programme... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vintage launches digital campaign for debut

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 14:12 Vintage Publishing's Harvill Secker is launching a digital marketing campaign for one of its autumn debuts, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, teaming up with Failbetter Games. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstone's sold, Daunt in, Myers out

Written By: Lisa Campbell, Philip Jones and Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 20/05/2011 - 08:50 Waterstone's has been sold to Alexander Mamut's A&NN Group for £53m. In a surprise move, James Daunt will run the bookseller as its managing director when the deal completes, with current... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WBN giveaway to be cut to 500,000 books

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 17/05/2011 - 15:59 World Book Night in 2012 will see 500,000 rather than 1m books given away, WBN founder Jamie Byng told Book Industry Conference (BIC) delegates this morning, as he also discussed incorporating digital and audio elements... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Transworld claims first day Madeleine sales of 40,000

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 13/05/2011 - 13:05 Transworld is reporting first day sales of at least 40,000 copies of Madeleine by Kate McCann, about the infamous disappearance of her daughter from their holiday apartment in Portugal four years ago. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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