Fey Chooses Little, Brown
By Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 10/3/2008 9:56:00 AM
According to the New York Observer, Little, Brown will publish Tina Fey's book, concluding a beauty contest
believed to include Ecco and two other houses. Richard Abate at Endeavor handled negotiations for the project, said to skew more toward humor than memoir; though it's unclear what the final price tag ended up being, Wednesday’s New York Post reported that offers were approaching $6 million. Publishers were clearly smitten with Fey, whose recent Emmy win and “Saturday Night Live” Sarah Palin imitations have ratcheted up her profile; other houses expressed early interest in the project despite Abate’s no-meeting, no-proposal pitch, but one such publisher at a Random House imprint who isn’t bidding said that the price tag just became untenable. Rumor had it Fey wanted to go somewhere “literary"; presumably Little, Brown, which earlier this week snagged a new novel by Donna Tartt, fits that bill.
