MacMillan UK will publish David Isaak’s TO SMITE THE WATERS under the auspices of its MacMillan New Writing imprint. MNW editor Will Atkins acquired the novel a few weeks ago; the contracts are signed and I don’t know the pub date but I’m guessing summer of 2007. David Isaak is the first American living in the US to be signed by MNW. A previous American author is residing in London.
SMITE is a very cool book as indeed all of David’s books are. I’ve read four of them in manuscript, and he and I have been to Kinko’s together for one of those print out your work moments before it’s due experiences. If it weren’t for David, I’d still be in Kinkos trying to use my major credit card under duress.
Why is David being published in the UK, but not the US? Why did Warren Moon play in the Canadian Football League? Moon threw about 500 touchdown passes in the NFL. It turned out he was a pretty good quarterback.
Score a big one for MacMillan UK. David wrote of Editor Will Atkins and MNW publicist Sophie Portas, “they are friendly, open, prompt, encouraging, and even welcoming. These people seem to like writers and like books.”
MNW prints a newsletter detailing the events planned as each new title is launched. German rights to Matt Curran’s THE SECRET WAR have been sold while a British production company has optioned another MNW title THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Steven Fuchs.
MacMillan New Writing was launched as an over the transom author to publisher imprint that doesn’t look at work submitted by literary agents. The theory is that this approach keeps the cost of acquiring fiction down while launching careers of authors agents may have overlooked or been unable to place. Some UK agents reacted harshly to MNW’s business model. Michael Barnard, the Macmillan exec who created MNW, wrote a book called The Transparent Imprint that spells out his vision.
Congratulations to David Isaak and MNW.
From a Canadian (where Warren Moon tore up the stats) to David,
Congrats!
Thanks, Steve, and thanks, David Thayer.
And, oh, we have a tentative pub date now: September 7, 2007.
I read a few of MNW’s first books before I decided to submit SMITE, and I’m thrilled to be joining their gang. The MNW list is eclectic. Brian Martin’s “North” is sexually charged but literary, like something Fowles might have conceived; Roger Morris’ “Taking Comfort” is stylistically unusual lit-fic with some real surprises buried inside; Conor Corderoy’s “Dark Rain” is a noirish detective piece that just happens to take place in an eco-diaster future; Michael Stephen Fuchs “The Manuscript” is a full-up chase-the-McGuffin thriller, but the cast of characters might have been beamed in from a Pynchon novel. Nothing at MNW quite fits the conventional mold, and that’s exciting.
Did I mention that the books are beautifully produced? Cloth hardbacks, sewn in signatures, an old-fashioned ribbon bookmark sewn into the spine…it’s like traveling back in time. But, then, the whole MNW experiment, for all the controversy it generated, is really just a move back to traditional publishing. One can only hope that at some point one of the big NY publishers will start a copy-cat scheme.
You can probably tell from the way I’m babbling that I’m happy. I’ll shut up now.
Babble on you have every right to be happy about this!
This is the sort of news I’m delighted to report.
I’ve also had the great joy to read several of David’s novels in manuscript form. As a creative writing teacher for the past thirty years, I can say without hesitation that David is one of the top three student writers I’ve read in that time. More important, he’s as good as most of the well-known literary writers that are currently in bookstores. His wit, intelligence, and skill make his writing memorable and entertaining–as well and insightful. Do yourself a favor next September and read his book.
Congratulations, David – and welcome to the MNW coterie. It is rather a warm and welcoming group, and strangely family-like. Perhaps that comes from having huddled together to brave the perverse (and largely inexplicable) slings and arrows that greeted the original announcement of the imprint . . .
If you happen to have a London launch of any sort – or make it over on any pretext – it would be great to meet up.
Oh, and I was hoping to keep it under wraps, but in fact I actually *did* beam my characters in from a lesser-known Pynchon novel . . . he generally had too many to keep track of anyway, so I figured no one would notice, and it saved me an awful lot of effort . . .
Cheers,
Michael
http://www.the-manuscript.com/
Thanks, Ray! I’m blushing–and that doesn’t look at all attractive under this beard. (And congrats on your latest book and screenplay deals.)
DI
Michael, hello and thank you! I’ll certainly be in London under some pretext or another, so I’ll definitely stop by and pester you. And congrats on the film option!
The beaming-in is an excellent recycling concept, at least as it worked in your book. But I recently tried it out myself, and I was less fortunate. I was trying to channel some Chandler types for my novel about South Central gangs, but I kept getting characters evenly mixed between Evelyn Waugh and Edna Ferber.
DI
I’m late to the party, but congratulations David. Thanks too for the kind words about my book.
I can vouch for Will and Sophie. They are both great to work with – very supportive and very approachable.
I must throw in my congratulations too to David i, and welcome to the family, because in a way that’s what you’re getting here. We’re all pretty much in touch with each other, either via blogs, via e-mail or the various book launches.
And I second Roger’s comments on Will and Sophie, they’ve been fantastic with me. Look forward to seeing the book in print…