Ah, it’s always fun to read lengthy pieces about writers that publishers really, really hope will break out big. And as the Washington Post reports in great, great detail, Putnam’s betting big money on Kate Mosse, who helped found the Orange Prize in the UK, worked in publishing and is selling mundo copies of her thriller LABYRINTH over there thanks to the might of Richard & Judy. And also because of a teeny tiny comparison to a certain Dan Brown novel, which got her a face-to-face with B&N fiction buyer Sesalee Hensley:
Hensley is known in the industry for helping launch “The Da Vinci Code” with a huge order. Not surprisingly, she’s a good deal more inclined to make the Kate Mosse-Dan Brown connection than the people at Putnam, whose first response is often to dismiss the link, but who understandably want to have it both ways.
What about the Putnam rep who asked Mosse if she minded him selling the book as “a distaff ‘Da Vinci Code’ “? The one to whom she replied, “I think that’s a fantastic phrase if you think it helps”?
“Well as long as he asked her permission,” [Putnam editor in chief Neil] Nyren says, as he and [publisher Ivan] Held burst out laughing.
And while booksellers love it and orders are strong, the bottom line is this: what will Bookscan say? Stay tuned…