Tom Wolfe Leaves Longtime Publisher, Taking His New Book

Story published in New York Times: January 3, 2008

Tom Wolfe, the author of sprawling social novels like “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “A Man in Full,” has severed his 42-year relationship with Farrar, Straus & Giroux and agreed to sell the rights to publish his next novel, to be set in Miami, to Little, Brown & Company. People involved in the negotiations said on Wednesday that Mr. Wolfe’s advance for the new book was close to $7 million.

Tom Wolfe: Additional articles, reviews, videos, links and information about the author.
Magazine: A Profile of Tom Wolfe by Charles McGrath (October 31, 2004)

News of Mr. Wolfe’s departure from Farrar, Straus surprised several publishing executives because they had regarded that author and publishing house as loyal to each other, although Mr. Wolfe’s last novel, “I Am Charlotte Simmons,” was a disappointment at the cash register and received mixed reviews.
Jonathan Galassi, publisher of Farrar, Straus, which has published 13 books with Mr. Wolfe, said he liked what he saw of the new novel, “Back to Blood,” which involves characters of Cuban, French, Russian and Haitian ancestry, all meeting in Miami. “We just couldn’t agree on terms,” Mr. Galassi said.

A handful of publishers were allowed to see an excerpt from the new novel, and Little, Brown won the rights to publish it after an auction that ended just before Christmas.
Mr. Wolfe, through a Little, Brown spokeswoman, declined a request for an interview. In a statement he did not address the subject of his shift in publishers, but said: “Two years ago when I got the idea of doing a book on immigration, people would say, ‘Oh, that’s fascinating,’ and then they would go to sleep standing up like a horse. Since then the subject has become a little more exciting, and in Miami it’s not only exciting, it’s red hot.”

Little, Brown bought North American rights for the novel, which it hopes to publish in 2009. “It’s Tom Wolfe writing the kind of novel that only Tom Wolfe among the living American writers can do,” Michael Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown, said. “He’s looking at a society in huge flux and the combinations of ambition and class and all the different human drives that make cities fascinating places.” He added: “He’s seen a great subject in a great setting, and he’s the master.”

Mr. Pietsch declined to discuss the new advance or the performance of “I Am Charlotte Simmons,” published in 2004. That book, about a sheltered freshman at a big university who throws herself into a life of frat parties and casual sex, was roundly considered a disappointment because it did not sell nearly as well as Mr. Wolfe’s previous novels.

According to Nielsen BookScan, which represents about 70 percent of book sales, “I am Charlotte Simmons” sold 293,000 copies in hardcover and 138,000 copies in paperback. When Farrar, Straus published the novel, it announced a first-print run of 1.5 million hardcover copies. Although such numbers tend to be inflated, a more realistic print run of about 800,000 far outstripped sales of the book. It also far undersold “A Man in Full,” which sold about 1.1 million copies in hardcover.

Established writers who have spent many years with one publisher and then have a disappointing book often end up moving to a new house because the advances they demand become too high for the existing publisher. A decade ago Stephen King famously left his longtime publisher, Viking, for Scribner when Viking balked at the $18 million advance he wanted for “Bag of Bones.”

Lynn Nesbitt, Mr. Wolfe’s agent, declined to comment on his declining sales or his advance. “It just seemed time to change,” she said, adding that Pat Strachan, the Little, Brown editor who will handle “Back to Blood,” also worked with Mr. Wolfe while at Farrar, Straus. Ms. Strachan worked on “The Right Stuff,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and four other Wolfe books.
Molly Stern, editorial director of fiction at Viking Penguin, did not see the excerpt from the new novel, but said she would have liked the chance to bid on it. Despite the performance of “Charlotte Simmons,” she said, “there will always be someone who wants to publish Tom Wolfe because he’s an icon and someone who sells.”