NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — CAA has made its official entrance into the publishing business by hiring Simon Green to put together book deals for the company's clients. Green will be working out of CAA's New York offices.
Green recently made some major bank for CAA when he put together a deal for a photo book for touring wiz-kids, The Jonas Brothers, Variety reported. Previously, Green worked for POM, a literary agency founded by his father Dan Green. According to Variety, Green will not be bringing any of his clients with him to CAA.
CAA's entry into the publishing business is potentially fraught with peril. Their rivals at Endeavor, WMA and ICM have all recently branched out into the business, making for stiff competition for indie agents. CAA however, has been quite successful in pacting book-to-movie deals for their clients based on submissions from these indies and other companies such as Endeavor that have recently launched Lit divisions have experience significant drop-offs in outside submissions, Variety said.
CAA has attempted to thread this needle by assuring indie agents that Green will hold himself to casting book deals for CAA's clients. Despite these assurances the indies remain wary, adopting a wait-and-see approach.
"If they build this department to five agents in the next two years, none of us will submit our books to them," one unidentified major agent told Variety. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
