How do you get a debut novel published? It helps if your surname is Depp

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent for The Independent, Friday, 9 May 2008

Set in the celebrity-studded enclave of the Hollywood Hills, the novel sees a private investigator hired by an A-list actor who is receiving a series of chilling death threats from an obsessive fan.
Ordinarily, the thriller written by a debut novelist, Daniel P Depp, might have found a modest market among crime fictionfans.
But once publishers discovered that the writer could offer an "insider's view" of Hollywood, there was a savage bidding war to buy the rights to the book. For Daniel P is the half-brother of a certain Johnny Depp.
Loser's Town is poised to become a publishing phenomenon around the world as well as in its home market of the United States. The rights to it were bought by Simon and Schuster in Britain in a "pre-emptive" deal – when an offer is so high that the book is taken off the market – as well as being snapped up in Canada, Hungary and France, with more foreign rights due to be sold, according to The Bookseller.

Depp's literary agent, Meg Davis, said she expected the interest to be "global" in the months leading up to publication next spring, with a follow-up "series" already planned.
"Daniel has been a producer [with Johnny Depp] so it has got a lot of authenticity and it gives the reader an insider's view of Hollywood," added Ms Davis.

For the full story link here to The Independent online. Photo by Getty Images in The Independent.

And this is the story from The Telegraph.

And in The Bookseller.