Stakes High for Hostage Books

While mixing the subjects of money and the hostage experience may seem unsavory, publishers are nonetheless banking on big-time interest from the public.

Exact figures for advances and/or projected royalties were unavailable. But “Den of Lions,” for example, brought Terry Anderson a seven-figure advance, according to his publisher, Crown.

Anderson’s deal included excerpts in Newsweek and a production agreement with NBC-TV. The former hostage said he does not know whether his story will be shown as a movie or a mini-series, and that he has “no idea” who will be cast to portray him. (Nor does he care, he said, “provided it’s not someone tall and handsome.”)

At Harcourt Brace, North American publishing rights to Terry Waite’s “Taken on Trust” represented a mid-six-figure deal. Waite’s book is out simultaneously in Britain, where heavy sales are expected.

Soon after Brian Keenan’s “An Evil Cradling” was published in Britain, meanwhile, Viking negotiated a “low-five-figure sale” to publish it in the United States. Keenan’s book topped British hardcover and paperback best-seller lists last year, surprising no one more than the author himself.

“I wrote the book for myself,” Keenan said. “I thought it would sell maybe 3,000 copies--not a quarter of a million.”