Big book advances are back. Diana Gabaldon got more than $6 million for the ninth novel in her Outlander series. On Monday, Publishers Marketplace reported that Ecco paid $3 million or more for Charles Frazier’s fourth novel. And during an acquisitions frenzy leading up to the Frankfurt Book Fair last month, Random House signed two seven-figure deals with debut novelists, including 25-year-old Emma Cline, who got a three-book deal worth $2 million.
The latest novelist to land a major book deal is Stephanie Clifford, a New York Times reporter who covers the Brooklyn courts. Ms. Clifford sold North American rights to her debut novel, “Everybody Rise,” to St. Martin’s Press last week for a low seven-figure sum. The novel, which follows a young social striver jockeying for status on the Upper East Side, was also acquired for film by Fox 2000 Pictures.
Ms. Clifford, who has covered media, business and courts for The New York Times, first had the idea for the novel a decade ago, and has been working on it steadily for four years, writing early in the morning and on weekends. The story centers on a 26-year-old woman who moves to New York just before the financial crisis and gets a job at a social networking site. The job draws her into the cutthroat social scene on the Upper East Side, where she attempts to pass as old money.
Charles Spicer, an executive editor at St. Martin’s, described the book as “Bonfire of the Vanities for the 21st century,” and said it would appeal to fans of Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Prep” and Maggie Shipstead’s “Seating Arrangements.” The novel is scheduled for publication in 2016.