Monday, January 29, 2007

Fergie's historical novel, part deux

Last July I briefly mentioned a publishing deal for Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, for her historical novel Hartmoor, which reportedly sold to St. Martin's Press. Today's Publishers Marketplace has the official word:

Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson's HARTMOOR, a historical novel written with novelist Laura Van Wormer, to Sally Richardson and Hope Dellon at St. Martin's, for publication in winter 2008, by Peter Sawyer of the Fifi Oscard Agency and Loretta Barrett (world).

The good news: Van Wormer is a published novelist (in contemporary mystery) and quite a successful one, it appears, although I've never read any of her work. She's also familiar with the historical period of Hartmoor, as she's been working on a biography of late 18th century actress-turned-aristocrat Elizabeth Farren (1762-1829) for almost 15 years. Her website includes a note to readers, dated yesterday, with more details about her collaboration with Ferguson.

Hope Dellon, one of the St. Martin's editors who purchased Hartmoor, will be one of nine publishing professionals meeting with prospective authors at June's HNS conference in Albany.
Posted by at 5:05 PM

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:02 AM

    Sarah,
    A very smart move to have Van Wormer's name on the cover. She's very popular in public libraries, having built up a large following over the years.(I've never read her stuff either.) While Fergie's celebrity will generate a lot of interest, Van Wormer's rep should insure a good read that her fans will buy. At least that's probably what the publishers are hoping. ; ) Be interesting to see if it flops or flies, anyway.

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  2. Sarah Johnson1:15 PM

    Thanks, Mike - some good points. I'd been assuming Fergie would have a co-author, and am happy to see she'll be credited as such. Which doesn't always happen with novels by celebrities, as we well know! Contemporary mystery isn't my field at all, but good to know that Van Wormer's a popular author. I'd probably read it.

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  3. Susan Higginbotham3:48 PM

    Sarah, it looks as if you've gone Beta!

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  4. Sarah Johnson3:54 PM

    Yep, you're right, I switched it over around noontime. It looks exactly the same to me though! (This is a good thing)

    BTW, thanks to Cinderella for linking to this Fergie post from royalty.nu. The traffic to this blog has gone through the roof today!

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  5. Anonymous11:24 PM

    You're welcome -- thank you for the great article!

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