Publishers Weekly reports that Terry Goodkind is moving his books from Tor to Putnam. Ivan Held, the president of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, acquired US hardcover and paperback rights to three new novels, in a joint venture with Berkley Books brokered by Goodkind’s agent Russell Galen. Goodkind has sold more than 25 million copies of his books over the last 15 years. Tor published the final book in his “Sword of Truth” series, Confessor, in November.
Goodkind has been trying to be accepted as a mainstream, rather than fantasy, author for some time, and Putnam will publish the new books as mainstream fiction. The first book should debut in autumn of 2009. Executive Editor Susan Allison at Berkley will edit all three books, which are standalones.
Held said Putnam will be able to get Goodkind wider distribution than Tor, and that the first three books “fit perfectly on Putnam’s list [and have] huge mainstream appeal.”
On choosing to move to Putnam, Galen said “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, still untitled, book, will be a contemporary thriller set in an American city. Later this year, a new series produced by Sam Raimi and based on Wizard’s First Rule, Goodkind’s first book, will be syndeicated by Disney’s ABC Television Domestic Syndication Division.