Terry Goodkind Moves to Putnam for Three-Book Deal

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 6/26/2008 9:41:00 AM

After a long career with Tor, bestselling fantasy writer Terry Goodkind is moving to Putnam. Ivan Held, president of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, acquired U.S. hardcover and paperback rights in a joint venture with Berkley Books. Putnam will publish the novels—which will be mainstream fiction, not fantasy—in hardcover; Berkley will publish the paperbacks. The first book will pub in fall 2009. Susan Allison, v-p, executive editor at Berkley, will edit all three books, which are standalones and not part of a series. Over the past 15 years, Goodkind’s books have sold some 25 million copies worldwide. Most recently, he wrote the final installment in the Sword of Truth series, Confessor, which Tor published in November.

Held said Putnam will be able to get Goodkind’s books into a wider market than Tor did. The first of the three books “fits perfectly on Putnam’s list,” he said, describing it as having “huge mainstream appeal.” Goodkind’s literary agent, Russell Galen, said he and Goodkind examined a wide variety of publishing strategies for the new books, talking to Tor and many other publishers. “The presentation made to us by Putnam was the one that was the most confidence-inspiring, and so we made our deal there. We felt Putnam was best equipped to exploit the potential of these books,” and that Putnam will provide “the right foundation to launch [Goodkind] on an even bigger, bolder, more ambitious publishing adventure.”

The first book, yet to be titled, will be a contemporary thriller set in an American city. This fall, a television series based on Goodkind’s first book, Wizard’s First Rule—produced by Sam Raimi and syndicated by Disney’s ABC Television Domestic Syndication Division—will air.