U. S. Author "Licensed To Thrill"

Daniel Craig in the film Casino Royale

He might be the quintessential English spy, suave, laconic and comfortable in a dinner jacket, but the adventures of Ian Fleming's iconic creation James Bond are set to be continued by the chart-topping American thriller writer Jeffery Deaver.  Best known for his quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, the star of books including The Bone Collector and The Stone Monkey, Deaver has been commissioned to write a new Bond novel by Fleming's estate.
Currently known as Project X, the book will be set in the present day, unlike Sebastian Faulks's recent addition to the Bond oeuvre, Devil May Care, which took place in 1967.

Apart from its contemporary setting, Deaver was giving little else away about the plot, but revealed it would occur over a short period of time and take 007 to "three or four exotic locations around the globe". He has already started writing the book, which is out next May, and promised it would retain "the persona of James Bond as Fleming created him and the unique tone the author brought to his books", while also incorporating his own "literary trademarks: detailed research, fast pacing and surprise twists".

Fleming's estate was moved to approach Deaver after he raved about the Bond books in an acceptance speech for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award. "I'd always enjoyed Jeffery Deaver's thrillers [but] I didn't know anything about the author himself and expected a fairly low-key response from him when he received our award," said Corinne Turner, the managing director of Ian Fleming Publications.

"I was surprised and delighted when he spoke very fondly of Ian and about the influence that the Bond books had had on his own writing career. It was at that point that I first thought James Bond could have an interesting adventure in Jeffery Deaver's hands."

Fleming's 14 James Bond novels have sold more than 100m copies around the world, and Faulks's Devil May Care, published in 2008 to mark the centenary of Fleming's birth, was Penguin's fastest selling hardback fiction title ever.

The publisher of Deaver's contribution, Hodder & Stoughton, has equally lofty expectations for Project X. "We've very high hopes," said Hodder & Stoughton's publishing director of fiction, Carolyn Mays, adding that the American Deaver is actually well placed to take on a British icon. "If Bond fans know Jeffery and his work they won't have any qualms about it at all. He is American but he knows Fleming and Bond back to front, and he's also got a very European sensibility. I'm sure he will do a brilliant job and do Bond justice."

Previous official Bond novels have been written by authors including Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Raymond Benson. - Guardian

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Your Poll Results from AmSAW

The American Society of Authors and Writers is pleased (confused, dazed, stunned) to present the results of our latest poll: "In what genres do you write exclusive of all others?"

As of today, the results are

1. Women's, Romance, or Chick Lit 22.7% (41 votes)
2. All Genres 15.5% (28 votes)
3. Literary 11.6% (21 votes)
4. Sci-Fi/Fantasy 11% (20 votes)
5. How-To/Self-Help 9.4% (17 votes)
6. Mainstream/Contemporary 6.6% (12 votes)
7. Juvenile/Young Adult 5.5% (10 votes)
8. Biography/Memoir 5% (9 votes)
9. Other: 12.7% (23 votes)Total Votes: 181

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Former CIA Op Spins Cold-War Tale

Embassy Intrigue

by Roger E. Neetz

A veteran of World War II, serving with the 8th Air Force, author Roger Neetz is a graduate of Georgetown University and the School of Foreign Service.  His professional career spans the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and the Central Intelligence Agency, serving tours in Germany and the former Soviet Union.  He is author of more than fifty professional papers on policy, trade, and economics, as well as three historical fiction novels and several short stories.  He is currently retired and lives in Vero Beach, FL

About the Book
Embassy Intrigue is a defining tale of intelligence operations that leaves no stone unturned.  Fact and fiction are skillfully interwoven into a suspenseful plot of mystery, intrigue, and betrayal in this elegantly crafted novel This book is the inside story of Embassy life and intelligence operations in Moscow during the period known as the Cold War, where events that transpired then still impact on today's world.  The clandestine nature of the operation and the deceit of Embassy personnel by power brokers give the story a real life flavor, guiding the reader through the KGB microwave penetrations that made the Embassy in Moscow a health hazard and explores the Israeli MOSSAD cooperation with the CIA, which agreed to provide material support for the development of an atomic bomb.

See Embassy Intrigue at Amazon.com Barnes and Noble Embassy Intrigue (American Book Publishing, Spring 2010, $22.00.  Fiction.  Historical.  Contemporary.  Political Intrigue.,

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Publishing Bits & Pieces

Harlequin has announced that its imprint, Harlequin Teen, will first give away and then sell for $2.99 Julie Kagawa's 15,000-word novella, Winter's Passage, which links her February debut novel, The Iron King, and her forthcoming July release, The Iron Daughter. Harlequin's Malle Vallik says "the purpose is to keep her audience interested while building their excitement for the next book."

A Sesame Street eBookstore has gone live today, offering subscription access to a library of over 100 children's books for $39.99 a year. Sesame Workshop SYP of worldwide media distribution Scott Chambers calls it "an important step forward in bringing our 40-year library of children's books to the next generation of young readers." He added, "We want to deliver our content to young readers in the formats they are engaging with on a daily basis." The initiative is managed for them by Impelsys.

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Does Everyone Have a POD Dog in This Fight???

News out of New York today has it that Barnes & Noble, the world's largest bookseller, is entering the Print-On-Demand fray by "extending its deep and longstanding tradition of supporting authors and publishers with PubIt! by Barnes & Noble, an easy and lucrative way for independent publishers and self-publishing writers to distribute their works digitally through Barnes & Noble.com and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore. The easy-to-use publishing and distribution platform offers qualified independent publishers and authors of self-published works expanded distribution, visibility and protection that only Barnes & Noble can offer."

According to the Press Release, this latest move propels Barnes & Noble toward one of the world's largest digital catalogs, spanning eBooks, journals, periodicals, and other types of reading material. The bookstore giant will distribute its PubIt! titles through BN.COM and Barnes & Noble's eBookstore, which currently offers more than one million digital titles to millions of "dedicated customers in-store and online," according to the company.

Although details of the new POD program won't be available for several weeks, B & N promises to protect intellectual property with Barnes & Noble's "best-in-class digital rights management technology" while offering authors and publishers access to millions of Barnes & Noble customers on hundreds of the most popular computing, mobile and eBook reading devices.

"As a company that has achieved much of its success by building mutually beneficial relationships with publishers and authors," according to Theresa Horner, director, Digital Products, "Barnes & Noble's new PubIt! service represents an exciting evolution and significant opportunity in the digital content arena. Barnes & Noble is uniquely positioned to support writers and publishers and bring their exciting digital works to the broadest audience of readers anywhere."

Whether online or on-the-go, Barnes & Noble customers will have access to PubIt! titles with the opportunity to browse, sample, buy, and download the digital content in seconds to their devices with free BN reader software, Horner added. Using Barnes & Noble's breakthrough Read In Store(TM) technology, NOOK(TM) customers can also browse the complete contents of PubIt! titles while in Barnes & Noble stores.

The company claims that PubIt! is a convenient one-stop-shop, allowing publishers to get their content in front of consumers for purchase and reading on the most widely adopted mobile devices and software platforms. "By following simple steps to upload their content in an industry standard format for electronic titles, content creators can reach consumers on hundreds of devices including: NOOK by Barnes & Noble, PC, Mac(R), iPad(TM), iPhone(R), BlackBerry(R) and others. For more information on free BN eReader software and apps, please visit www.bn.com/ebooks/download-reader.asp."

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Give Editors What They Want

It's a hard lesson for writers to learn, apparently. Editors don't want to see what you want to write. Editors want to see what they want to publish. There's a difference.

For example, I've been pitching a book about Papa Hemingway's time in Cuba for the past half dozen years or more. Every year, my agent resurrects it and tries to get some publisher to pick it up. Every year, she has no luck. Not because it's not a good book, and not because it's not publishable. Not only would it make a great read, it would sell like hotcakes. Still, no luck.

Then, on a lark, I asked her to pitch a new book idea about three early feminist writers, and the editors went crazy vying to be first to pick it up. ("Let me know IMMEDIATELY if anyone else shows interest in this project before I get back to you.")

What's the difference? I'm guessing that, since Hemingway died a long time ago and the marketplace has been flooded with stories about Papa ever since, prospects for picking up another book on the same subject and publishing it successfully may seem remote. But a book about three pioneering women who just also happened to be writer/feminists? Are you kidding? How en vogue. How politically correct. How hip!

I guess the lesson I learned from all of this is simple: Hit 'em where they ain't. Or, more appropriately, pitch the ones they want.

Sure, you can keep plugging away at your own pet projects. Every writer has them; there's nothing wrong with that. But, in the meantime, you should consider thinking long and hard about generating some more commercially viable properties, what makes for a successful publishable book, and what editors are likely to think people are likely to buy.

That's one of the ways AmSAW contributes to your success. Every story we run, every photo we publish is a nudge in a new direction. Read what SCRIBE! Media Magazine Professional has to offer with an unbiased eye toward who's making the news and today's hottest trends. If it's happening today (or will be happening tomorrow), some publisher somewhere is going to be interested in a book on the subject. See what I mean?

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