It was perhaps inevitable that scout/producer/editor and chutzpah queen Caron K would get good buzz about the first book she's handled as an agent. Sold to Doubleday publisher Arlene Friedman for five figures, Dancing at the Harvest Moon by K.C. McKinnon has also become a Farrah Fawcett/TriStar TV project, a main selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club and a hot foreign-rights property (sold to six countries at press time). Additionally, a $250,000 floor for the paperback rights has just been set.
What's making this book so hot? Basically, it's like Bridges of Madison County -- but written by a woman. According to acquiring editor-in-chief Pat Mulcahy, the story centers around an older woman dumped by her husband, who returns to Harvest Moon, the summer inn where she had an early romance, and has an affair with a younger man. Mulcahy plans a October publication, with a 250,000 first printing, up from original plans for 100,000. "We've been running around quoting Jerry Maguire: `Show me the money,'" Mulcahy said about all the foreign-rights interest. And for further excitement there's the fact that McKinnon is the pseudonym for a well-known literary author.
As for Caron K, this is her first agenting foray as chief of her new company, Caron K Literary Enterprises Unlimited -- an appropriate description since she'll be wearing many hats, drawing from her background as foreign and film scout for Franklin-Siegal, director of literary affairs at Fox, associate producer for the movie Waiting to Exhale and a brief in-house editorial stint at ReganBooks that she'd rather not talk about. "I love being an entrepreneuse," Caron K told PW. "I'm the best boss I ever worked for." Projects already in the works include scouting for TV production house Cosgrove/Meurer Productions, co-producing the HBO adaptation of Christopher Farley's My Favorite War and a Fox film deal for the Angelo Ellerbee story, about a man who runs a charm school for rappers. Caron K, who renamed herself in hopes of becoming a rapper herself, will serve as a co-executive producer.
Caron K was quick to point out that she intends to keep her various roles separate and will not expect or want to produce adaptations of books she agents or scouts. William Morris agent Bill Contardi, for example, handled the TV rights for Dancing at the Harvest Moon. Caron K d sn't, however, have any problem acting as her own press agent. Here's her new address: Caron K Literary Enterprises Unlimited, based at the Emma Sweeney Literary Agency, 245 E. 80th St., Suite 7E, New York, N.Y. 10021; (212) 396-4885, fax (212) 734-1874.
