Publishers' Sweepstakes

摘要

More and more it seems that numbers, not words, are what people in publishing talk about when they talk about books. Not so long ago, the buzz in the book business centered on authors-what had you heard about the new Cheever, the new Pynchon, this month's Joyce Carol Oates novel? This fall, by contrast, the talk turns most quickly to Nicholas Evans, a 45-year-old British screenwriter no one had ever heard of until late last year. That's when he sold his first novel, "The Horse Whisperer," for $6.15 million-$3.15 mil for the book, $3 mil for the movie rights, and both deals done before the book was even finished.