Karp Signs Menaker’s 'A Good Talk'

By Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 12/11/2007 1:59:00 PM

Dan Menaker, who stepped down from his executive editorship at Random House this past June to devote more time to his writing, has just sold a proposal for a book tentatively titled A Good Talk; Esther Newberg at ICM wrapped up the auction this morning. The winner? Former Random editor-in-chief Jonathan Karp, who purchased world rights for his Grand Central imprint, Twelve.

The book, described by Menaker as a "literary how-to" about the art of conversation, will include advice and anecdotes. According to Karp, who says he was "bowled over" by the idea, A Good Talk is a writer's deconstruction of all of the things going on in a conversation, and the unspoken truths and unwritten rules of communication. "Anyone who knows Dan knows it's the book he was meant to write," said Karp.

The collaboration may surprise some industry insiders who sensed a sometimes uneasy pas-de-deux between the two top editors during their overlapping tenure at Random. To wit: Menaker was named editor-in-chief at Random in 2003, a position Karp was reportedly seeking at the time. A little over a year later, roles shifted again, Karp assuming editor-in-chief duties as Menaker transitioned to the newly created position of executive editor-in-chief. Office politics aside, Karp, who resigned from Random in June 2005, says he's been a fan of Menaker's for years, and given the opportunity, "I would have published his e-mails." For his part, Menaker considers Karp "one of the very best publishers in New York."

Menaker is the author of two story collections, The Old Left and Friends and Relations, and more recently, a novel, The Treatment, published by Knopf in 1998. Jordan Pavlin, who edited Menaker's novel at Knopf, did not respond to a request for comment on whether the imprint bid on the new project. Karp said A Good Talk will be published sometime in 2010.