On the face of it, this looks like a smart acquisition on all sides. Starting Gardiner in mass market means (as I explained last month) that her audience can build quickly and demand will grow until a suitable splash is made with the first hardcover release. For Dutton, Gardiner will enable them to tap into the audience that reads other New York Times bestselling female thriller writers like Tami Hoag, Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner and Alison Brennan while adding a necessary counterpart to a predominantly male thriller list (including Harlan Coben, Jonathon King, Juan Gomez-Jurado and Stephen White.) It’s also Sevier’s first thriller acquisition and his second major deal since moving to Dutton earlier this year. So while a lot is riding on Gardiner to live up to the expectations set by King’s blurb and Abebooks’ inability to keep her UK editions in stock, the likelihood is that this risk will pay off in spades.
UPDATE: Dutton has released an announcement about Gardiner’s six-figure deal, which was finalized last Friday evening. Sevier will edit Gardiner’s new novels for hardcover publication, which Dutton will release in the summer of 2008. “For such a talented thriller writer to have gone unpublished in her own country for so long is difficult to imagine, and I look forward to helping Meg find the American audience she so clearly deserves,” says Sevier in the announcement. “THE DIRTY SECRETS CLUB is everything I look for in a suspense novel-fast-moving, inventive, with an engaging heroine in Jo Beckett and a plot that twists and turns toward an explosive finale set against the backdrop of an earthquake-addled San Francisco.” As for the backlist, Dutton spokeswoman Beth Parker said by email this morning that they had not been scheduled for publication by NAL as yet.