Tue, Apr 09, 2002 page19

• After films and magazines, Talk Miramax finds success with books

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  "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.

  Even beyond the top authors, Brown said, she has often advised Burnham about what to publish and about how to present it to the public and the news media.

  "I have been able to really boost the women's angle in the house," she said, alluding to successful Talk Books like Ice Bound, by Dr. Jerri Neilsen, about treating herself for breast cancer at the South Pole, and Creating a Life, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, about professional women having children.

  Indeed, Burnham described a pattern among its successful books that resembled films shown on the Lifetime channel: "real stories about women who are able to overcome adversity."

  In several cases Talk Miramax Books has enjoyed some lucky breaks. The company paid what looked to many like an excessive US$3 million for the rights to the memoirs of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. After Sept. 11, the payment suddenly looked like a bargain.

  The newsletter Publishing Trends has noted that many of Talk's biggest successes have come from paying big advances for splashy books by one-time authors -- the riskiest course for a publisher. It is also a far cry from the way Weinstein said he intended to build his new book publishing company, by signing up writers and books that will sell for years to come, as Bennett Cerf did at Random House.

  But Burnham, the company's president, said he is working on cultivating authors like Christopher Rice, the son of the best-selling author Ann Rice, and Helen DeWitt, author of the novel The Last Samurai, for the long-term. (DeWitt, whose book was very well reviewed, also happened to work as a secretary to Weinstein's brother-in-law before her book's publication.)

  For his part, Weinstein suggested that he has also played a dominant role at Talk Books. "Every final decision is mine," he said. "John and Tina have very strong input into the creative side, and I have strong input into the creative side, too."

  "When I meet with people who I find interesting or innovative and there is a concept for a book," he said, "Tina and Jonathan can execute it brilliantly."

  Weinstein noted that several of Talk's books were developed by him personally or through his connections, including DeWitt's novel, Giuliani's memoir and a forthcoming book by the lawyer David Boies. He said that several other books were acquired at the same time as the film rights, like the best-selling children's novel Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, which was published by Talk Books after Miramax Films found the manuscript. The company has also acquired the book and film rights to two sequels, and Miramax will begin producing a film version of Artemis Fowl this fall -- as Weinstein's answer to Harry Potter.

  "That will be the property that pays for everything," Weinstein said, covering even the US$27 million in losses on Talk magazine with the proceeds from the books and the films. "We will have the sequel rights for years, and we own the whole kit and caboodle."
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