For Steve Hamilton and St. Martins, the divorce was a tad messy. After 12 books and 17 years. Award-winning author Steve Hamilton recently parted ways with St. Martins Press. News first came when SMP announced that it was parting ways with Steve. But that was not the end of it, Steve went public and cited a lack of support from his longtime publisher and said it was he that initiated the split. THE SECOND LIFE OF NICK MASON was to be Steve’s next book and was to come out next month. Authors and publishers breaking up is not unusual, but to do so less than two months before the release of a new series is unheard of.
Now, just days after the split became public, Steve has signed with Putnam. According to The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno, Steve’s agent, the signing came after a bidding war with more than ten publishers. The deal, which is for four books, will begin with a 2016 Summer release of NICK MASON.
I recently read the Nick Mason book and enjoyed the hell out of it. Shane told me the book was to be the first in a new series and made it sound like they have high expectations for it. Departing before the start of a new series makes sense in that you are not leaving a character’s back catalog with a bitter former publisher. Year back, Robert Crais changed publishers and while his Elvis books were doing quite well, a couple back catalog titles went out of print from his past publisher.
