Sterling Teams With Napoleon Hill

-- Publishers Weekly, 6/1/2009 7:41:00 AM

Sterling Publishing has inked a partnership with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, a non-profit educational institution, to do a series of books called Think and Grow Rich. The first title in the series, Three Feet from Gold, by Sharon Lechter (co-author of various titles in the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series) and Greg S. Reid (The Millionaire Mentor), is slated to hit bookstores in October. The deal also marks Sterling's first in a Harper Stuido-like program called Author Ownership, which offers authors lower advances in exchange for a bigger cut of profits.

Gold is, according to Sterling, a modern-day version of Think and Grow Rich, which Napoleon Hill, a successful self-help author from 1930s, originally published in 1937; the title went on to become one of the bestselling business/self-help books of its time. Gold will be published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of when Hill began researching Think and Grow Rich. Speaking to the Author Ownership program, a rep from Sterling said other titles are "in the pipeline" and that the publisher is "actively trying to entice authors" to publish in this fashion.