Big SMP Buy for 'New Pilcher'

Tom Dunne, who has his own imprint at St. Martin's and publishes the too-infrequent novels of Rosamunde Pilcher, says he gets offered many books in her vein, but in vain; now at last he has found someone who seems to bear comparison with that popular author. She is Marcia Willet, who has published nearly a dozen novels with Headline in the U.K. but is unknown here, and Dunne has just made a deal that with bonuses approaches seven figures for her next two books: A Week in Winter and a second book he hasn't seen yet. Pocket Books was also keen, so Dunne had to outbid in an auction held by agent Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Grinberg, acting for the Devon-based author's U.K. agent, Dinah Wiener. Dunne bought North American rights, and hopes to have Willet aboard for the long haul, perhaps doing some of her earlier books, too. "She really delivers for that audience, quality women's fiction that isn't too sentimental," he said. "She's the real thing." He expects to do the first book in the fall.