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2nd December 2008

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Brand deserts Hodder for HC

12.06.08 Joel Rickett

Russell Brand has ditched Hodder & Stoughton, publisher of his Christmas 2007 number one My Booky Wook, in favour of a UK and international deal with HarperCollins.

Until last week Hodder had been working on the as-yet-untitled follow-up, a £20 hardback scheduled for 30th October. Hodder’s AI sheet promised Brand would “opine on a wide variety of subjects, from his love for West Ham to the...logistics of sleeping with five people in one night”.

But that book will now be published by HC in the UK, after HC struck a multi-million pound global deal for Brand’s next two books and for US rights in My Booky Wook. Brand’s profile in the US has rocketed since the success of his film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.

Sources said that Brand had not yet signed a contract with Hodder for the second book. His former editor Nick Davies has now joined Canongate. Hodder m.d. Jamie Hodder Williams said: “The deal was done in New York by Richard Abate at Endeavour—Russell’s been in the US doing films since January and his focus is now very much about America.” Hodder has sold more than 515,000 copies of My Booky Wook through BookScan; the July paperback has a 175,000 copy first print run.

HarperCollins c.e.o. Victoria Barnsley said: “Russell Brand is a sensational talent with a really unique voice...It’s a real coup to have signed him.”

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