Twelve Counts Down

by Marcela Valdes, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 11/30/2006

Hachette Book Group's imprint Twelve canceled its July 2007 title last week, and another title may be in jeopardy.

The cancellation of Nikki Finke's bio of Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz, The Man Who Wanted Everything, which was first reported on RadarOnline, came just a few weeks after Twelve editor Jonathan Karp was promoting the book on the Twelve imprint tour (PW, Nov. 20). "Nikki Finke is writing what will be the ultimate Hollywood book," Karp told a group of booksellers on November 2. "It's a true parable about power and how evanescent it can be."

Karp was an editorial assistant at Random House when the book was first acquired there 16 years ago. The manuscript is still not completed. "She is in the last part of the home stretch," said Finke's agent, Alice Martel, who plans to sell the book to another publisher. "It will definitely see the light of day," she said. Neither Karp nor Martell would comment on why Finke's contract with Twelve was canceled. The manuscript was sold to Karp by agent Andrew Blauner.

Twelve's other Hollywood title, The Process: A Director's Life by Robert Altman, may also not be published, following Altman's death on November 20. "It's too soon to address the status of the Altman project," Karp said.

Karp said tThe possibility that his first list may only have 10 titles rather than 12 does not cast any doubt on the viability of Twelve, Karp said. "We never said that we were going to publish a book every month," Karp said. "We said that we were going to publish no more than one book a month. I was very careful about that. The reality is books do fall through."

Indeed, he said, there may be many months in which Twelve does not publish a book. "I know that might suggest that the imprint should be called Nine or Ten," Karp said. "But we think 12 is a good goal, and once we're ramped up, we should be able to publish one book a month."