Der Geheime Krieg

Right then, time for some big news. On my return from Rome I had a message to call my editor, Will, who promptly told me that a major rights deal has been done with a German publisher, Goldmann (part of Random House) on The Secret War – sorry – Der Geheime Krieg. What this means is that The Secret War will be translated and published over in Germany in trade paperback in 2008 for a very nice tidy sum (which I am not going to disclose in this blog – sorry but I won’t be as transparent as Roger on this one!).
I get 50% of that sum – and while it’s not enough to give up the day-job, it will definitely help. It’s also one of the biggest rights deals Macmillan New Writing has been involved in since the imprint began earlier this year – and as Richard Charkin has said in a recent blog entry, the rights have been sold “for an advance which would have many established authors breaking out the champagne” (which I did last night – and I’ve been very much suffering for it this morning!).

So as news goes, this is up there with finding out Macmillan wanted to publish my book.

I guess, the most important thing is that this is the first rights deal for The Secret War, involving serious money from the start. And I’ve been told it’s a clear message to other international publishers that The Secret War is a significant book and worth looking at. What this means in the near future… well I do not have a crystal ball, but it looks promising. Afterall, I’m within a whisker of achieving my financial goal with The Secret War without selling a single copy of the book.

It’s not bad for a debut writer. And not bad for a new imprint that’s trying to break into a very competitive market – surrounded by doubters at every turn.

I think those doubters should now take note.