Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

Neil Nyren is THE MAN. In the world of bestsellers, he is the King Kong. Ain't no arguing. His record speaks for itself.

I had no idea who he was prior to his buying PNM. Now he seems like this looming figure in my career, which he is. Neil picking me changed everything, like everyone else who picked me before. If there's one thing I've learned in this career, it's that the visionary can "pick" the future, but what really matters is who picks him. There is no "go yout own way" nonsense. You are completely the product of others in terms of your access and renown. You just create the content, so know your place and appreciate the cast of thousands involved in making the vision happen (and don't even get me started on the implementation!). The visionary is all about connecting to others. The grand strategist is imagined as the solitary figure, figuring it all out on his own, but it's a complete myth. If your vision is that everything is connected to everything else (not exactly a new thought, eh!), then so is your career.

When you meet Neil, you can't help but be a bit underwhelmed, because his professional stature is so huge, but then he's this very normal looking guy who comes off as very unassuming and wonderfully soft-spoken (you expect him to be in Prada or something, yelling at everyone; in fact, you're tempted to say, "No, really, go and get me Neil Nyren! This isn't funny!"). He's just so relaxed and wry, instead of high-strung and outsized, you just want him to snap at somebody about getting him some coffee, or copy, or Tom Clancy on line 1!

Warren's like that too. A couple of guys who really live in their skin, very down to earth.

Anyway...

A lot of people sent me this interview with Neil on the website Murderati. Neil's interviewed there because he has so many huge mystery writers. The part everyone gets excited about is the intro to the interview (which is worth reading because you get some interesting glimpses into how Neil thinks and how the business works), where I get mentioned in the stable.

The authors list is simply lifted from the "about us" page on G.P. Putnam's Sons, which is basically the same description one would offer for Neil himself, since he's been with Putnam for a while (since 1984 and Putnam's unrivaled run began about a decade later, meaning it takes a while to build up the stable), so the reputation of both are really one in the same at this point in history.

Here's the list in the Murderati interview:

Neil S. Nyren is senior vice president, publisher and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons. He came to Putnam in 1984 from Atheneum, where he was Executive Editor. Before that he held editorial positions at Random House and Arbor House. Some of his authors include Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, Dave Barry, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Randy Wayne White, Carol O’Connell, James O. Born, Patricia Cornwell and Frederick Forsyth; nonfiction by Bob Schieffer, Maureen Dowd, John McEnroe, Linda Ellerbee, Jeff Greenfield, Charles Kuralt, Secretary of State James Baker III, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Sara Nelson, and Generals Fred Franks, Chuck Horner, Carl Stiner and Tony Zinni.

Here's the bigger bit from Putnam's page:

For the past fifteen consecutive years, G.P. Putnam's Sons has led the publishing industry with more hardcover fiction and nonfiction New York Times bestsellers than any other imprint in the publishing industry. Its impressive list of award-winning, bestselling authors is well-known around the world. With its rich history and unrivaled bestselling track record, G.P. Putnam's Sons continues to be one of the most respected and prestigious imprints in the industry. Today, Putnam has broadened its list with outstanding works that reflect contemporary interests. Among the distinguished roster of bestselling fiction authors Putnam publishes are: Dave Barry, Lilian Jackson Braun, Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Catherine Coulter, Clive Cussler, Barry Eisler, Frederick Forsyth, Sue Grafton, William Gibson, W.E.B. Griffin, Jack Higgins, Jayne Ann Krentz, Steve Martini, Kate Mosse, Robert B. Parker, Ridley Pearson, Amanda Quick, Karen Robards, J.D. Robb, Nora Roberts, John Sandford, Daniel Silva, Amy Tan, Kurt Vonnegut, Randy Wayne White and Stuart Woods. In nonfiction, authors published by the imprint include Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo, Lance Armstrong, James Baker, Thomas Barnett, A. Scott Berg, Maureen Dowd, Goldie Hawn, T.D. Jakes, Spencer Johnson, Bob Schieffer and Neale Donald Walsch.

Funny, but the association I get the biggest kick out of is Ken Follett, because I'm such a WWII nut.

Anyway ...

It's nice to be on the list. By contract, I have to give Neil the first look on the proposal to Vol. III. Doesn't mean it'll work for him. It just means I get a nice, serious look.

I've got to get a bunch of material off my skull by mid-April, then I plan on writing up the proposal (short version) for Neil and sending it through Jenn Gates, with all her natural inputs. If that fails, I'd need a bigger proposal to send to other houses (not the same relationship, so more explaining), but no matter what, I think I write the beast, almost for mental health reasons (gotta clear the brain) late this summer. Worse comes to worst, I'd settle for less because I just want this marker down personally. I think Vol. III will be simultaneously more about me and less about me than anything I've ever written, but I think I need to write it before I can go on to other things (like editing the book about Emily that I penned years ago). There's just this sense of intellectual sequence, like I've gotta go through it or suffer the consequences.

And I guess that's the artist in me, which I indulge, because I honestly believe the whole visionary/grand strategist thing is more art than science, so it runs a bit more on the internal subjective than the external objective. That might seem counter-intuitive, and it is given the material, but there's what it is and then there's how it gets created, and like war v. peace, you have to be able to disaggregate those things.