Business of author franchising grows

Will the new Robert Ludlum thriller you'll be reading this summer really be a Robert Ludlum? Well, the book's jacket will have this wordy irruption: Robert Ludlum's'The Hades Factor by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds. Will this be pure Ludlum, or something slightly vitiated? Actually, it will be what is called in the packaging business "line extension," which is the attempt to come up with a variation on a known product to expand the franchise. Is a Ludlum a Ludlum if a Lynds did the writing? No, not really.

Whatever. Ludlum is just the latest of the brand-name -- read, best-selling -- thriller writers to lend their names and credibility, and more, they say, to novels they do not actually write themselves. In this new universe, Tom Clancy, who also collaborates on nonfiction and on CD-ROM games based on the characters he creates, is the McDonald's of author franchising. Clive Cussler and Richard Marcinko were among those who followed, and now Ludlum has joined their ranks.

Moreover, is any of this misleading? Perhaps not exactly, but the implication is clear that the Clancys, the Cusslers and the Ludlums actually did more than scratch in some sentences here and there. It is all economics, naturally. Twenty-five years ago publishers and writers of best-selling novels created a lucrative cycle. The writer would produce one hardcover best seller a year, and at the moment of its publication the author's previous hardcover best seller would be reissued in paperback, the title thus becoming a cash machine a second time.

Why not double this, some asked? Well, even writers are human. What flagging author could be expected to write more than one hefty novel a year? Perhaps only Stephen King, who, it should be noted, does not collaborate, or tire, apparently. It should also be marked that Messrs. Clancy, Cussler and Ludlum intend to keep writing, on their own, the series novels that launched their franchises in the first place. (For instance, St. Martin's Press, which is publishing the joint-byline Ludlum trade paperback in June, is also publishing in hardcover this fall the latest international paranoia thriller written alone by Ludlum, The Prometheus Deception.)

Since there is nothing literary about the franchise concept, publishers, writers and their agents do not like to use that word. Rather, they see Clancy, Cussler and Ludlum as "producers," similar in a sense to movie producers, and there is some truth in that description.

In fact, Robert Gottlieb, Clancy's agent, describes his client's business this way: Clancy is like Mel Gibson, who has his own production company and directs and produces things under the banner of his own name. "That's what these powerful individuals do." He said that the author's Op-Center series of novels for the Putnam/ Berkley Group "are based on original concepts by Clancy" in the same way he would have a concept for a TV series or a movie. "He then brings in the people he approves to execute the idea."

(The Op-Center novels carry the names of Clancy and Steve Pieczenik on their covers as their "creators," which means that yet a different, unnamed writer actually wrote the books.)

"Someone comes up with a 30- or 40-page treatment for a paperback original, and it's approved or not," Gottlieb said. "If it is, Tom continues to oversee it editorially. He's working off a certain mind- set, and he knows if the book is an extension of his brand, something that people want to read and enjoy."

This is pretty much the way they all work. Peter Lampack, Cussler's agent, said that the author "will lay out an entire story line in detail, and the writer will give a draft chapter to Clive, who will revise it and edit it and return it to the collobrator."

"He has the steady hands on where he wants the second series to go," Lampack said, "and how he wants it to read to get there." Cussler has collaborated on several of his novels for his last publisher, Pocket Books, with Paul Kemprecos.

Lampack said: "With Pocket Books, Clive had the right to shut down any time he wanted if he thought the product was being diluted. We don't have that right with the new publisher" -- Putnam -- "because we don't need it. His working relationship with Kemprecos is so good; they are in creative sync."

Kemprecos said, however, that so far he had not been asked to move to Putnam with Cussler. Describing their working relationship, he said: "He came up with the characters, their physical description and background, the plot idea. I fleshed out the characters; I did most of the writing, and then we hashed it out together."

Of course, the star's name is the most prominent one on the cover, with the collaborator secondary. "I'm a writer for hire," Kemprecos said, "although I've written some books on my own. My payment comes from the publisher but it has to be approved by Clive."

Cussler's franchise is built around the character Dirk Pitt, whom he is taking to Putnam with him. "I've been doing Dirk Pitt books for 30 years; maybe I can find another writer down the line to take him over. It's not the money; it's the fans. I'd like to retire. I'm toying with the idea of Pitt having a son who shows up. He's getting a little long in the tooth. When we started out, we were both 36 years old. Now he's a little over 40, and I'm pushing 70."

Ludlum's collaborator has written two successful thriller novels on her own and in fact was compared by some reviewers to Ludlum. Henry Morrison, Ludlum's agent, said that Ludlum had developed the basic idea for the novel and that they worked on the plot together.He does editing and gives her his comments and has approval.

One could ask, does a best-selling author really get artistic satisfaction working with another writer? Matthew Shear, who heads several of St. Martin's paperback divisions, does not think much of the question.

"What happens is that these writers of big international thrillers are the type of writers who have too many ideas," Shear said. "They keep coming up with stories, more than they can possibly write. They tend to have that kind of mind. That's what makes them thriller writers, minds that are constantly churning with story ideas. But it takes too much time; now they can satisfy their readers." And, of course, make bundles of cash for everyone concerned.

2000Copyright
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.