"I have a bribe for you," Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax Films, stage-whispered to a reporter over the cocktail party din last week at the Midtown Manhattan home of Tina Brown, chairwoman of Miramax's Talk Media division and the editor of Talk magazine until it closed.
Weinstein pulled from his jacket pocket a badly bent paperback of the memoirs of Bennett Cerf, the founder of Random House. This "bribe" was Weinstein's distinctive way of underscoring that, although Talk magazine may have folded, his partnership with Brown lives on in its sister company, Talk Miramax Books, which they founded.
For Weinstein to compare himself to Cerf may seem grandiose. But he has had a rough year, beginning with the closing of Talk magazine and followed by an unusually poor showing for Miramax at the box office and the Oscars. So Talk Miramax Books, once a less-fashionable adjunct to Talk magazine, may be Miramax's biggest success at the moment, not to mention Brown's principal remaining responsibility.
After a little more than a year of publishing, Talk Books has enjoyed a remarkable run. Of its roughly 30 books, five have made national best-seller lists. Industry consultants estimate its revenue last year at about US$10 million, and Weinstein says that after two years in operation Talk Books is already in the black. Both Weinstein and Brown now point to the publisher's success as proof of the synergies in their marriage of his film company and her knowledge of publishing.
Starting a major new book publisher from scratch is very difficult because most publishers count on steady income from a catalog of older books to keep them afloat. Spending millions to acquire new books, as Talk Books has done, without steady income from a catalog is risky. Miramax, part of Walt Disney, which also owns Talk Books' sister publisher Hyperion, has deep pockets but may not care to lose money on books.
Many in the industry also wonder how much of a role Brown played in the publisher's success. Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and then The New Yorker, brought a combination of glamour, visibility and connections to Talk Books, and many wonder whether she will chose to continue presiding over a substantially diminished portfolio.
Without its sister magazine, Talk Books is unusually top-heavy. The division employs just seven people, relying on freelance editors, designers and publicists. But it has three bosses: Weinstein, Brown and Jonathan Burnham, the former editor of the prestigious Chatto & Windus imprint of Random House in Britain who is now the president and editor in chief of Talk Books.
Brown herself was circumspect. "I am really just enjoying what I am doing at the moment," she said in an interview. "My commitment was to start this company," including the magazine and book publisher.
Many agents and other publishers credit Burnham, who actually operates Talk Books, with most of the company's success. But Brown said that the roles at the top of Talk Books can often be blurry. "It is hard to know where Harvey begins and Jonathan ends and I begin," she said.
Her role, she said, has been "to attract the talent," including Burnham as editor as well as some marquee authors like the historian Simon Schama and the British novelist Martin Amis. In the case of some big-name authors, like Madeleine K. Albright, the former secretary of state, and Queen Noor of Jordan, Brown has also discussed their manuscripts.
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