When PW Daily’s Edward Nawotka reported on the staggering success of Mitch Albom‘s FOR ONE MORE DAY as a result of being sold in practically every Starbucks outlet in America (with, according to the chain, almost 50,000 copies sold in Starbucks stores alone), he let slip the tidbit that the company was scouting around for a second round of fiction – and it’s expected to be a novel by a first-time novelist. William Morris Agency, which scouts books for Starbucks and negotiates terms on its behalf, is said to be in discussion with a variety of publishers, though Farrar, Straus & Giroux has been mentioned several times as the likely publisher.
So if that’s the case, which book is the most likely candidate for the Starbucks seal? A quick search through FSG’s spring catalog provided the most likely candidate: RULES FOR SAYING GOODBYE by Katherine Taylor (left), written up at Publishers Marketplace as “invoking the spirit of Melissa Bank and Curtis Sittenfeld” – both bestselling authors who appeal to the upmarket, NPR-listening crowd that Starbucks covets as its customers.
Editor Courtney Hodell (then at HarperCollins, now at FSG) bought Taylor ‘s debut in April 2005 from Elizabeth Sheinkman (then with Elaine Markson, now in London at Curtis Brown) and Taylor went with when Hodell switched employers. The book’s pitch? “a young woman coming of age and becoming entangled in unsuitable jobs and men before she finds her way, exploring themes of tragedy and disappointment, homesickness and displacement, as well as the dynamics of contemporary middle class American family life.” So will Taylor ‘s novel, once it’s published in May, appear in coffee shops everywhere? “I’d love for that to be the case – Katherine’s novel is terrifically deserving! – but I haven’t heard a thing about it,” said Hodell when reached by email. “From your mouth to God’s ear.”