Publishers High on Marijuana Books
by more..., publishersweekly.com
March 14th 2011
Former actresses are doing it. New York Times journalists are doing it.
Screenwriters are doing it. Writing about marijuana, that is. With the changing
legal times, and the jaw-dropping reality that pot has become a $35 billion
legal industry in the U.S., the subject is drawing a motley crew of authors
exploring everything from agriculture and big business to socioeconomic norms
and the joys of toking. Agents say the surge in books about pot speaks to the
fact that the subject matter is that rarest of things: serious and fun.
Ben Greenberg, a senior editor at Grand Central who recently acquired New York
Times reporter Emily Brady's The Emerald Triangle, said there is no doubt that
the burgeoning legality of marijuana has allowed, even encouraged, writers to
produce books on the subject. While noting that most of the books about
marijuana touch on some element of culture, politics, or money, Greenberg said
what attracted him to Brady's book—which profiles a declining California
logging town that rebuilt its economy by growing and selling pot—is that it
looks at the marijuana industry through an unexpected prism. The book,
Greenberg said, "is a story of the decline of smalltown America as much as it
is about the marijuana trade."
Personal stories of pot enthusiasts who decided to try their hand at farming
and dealing are also cropping up. Mollie Glick at Foundry Literary + Media
recently sold Heather Donahue's memoir, Growgirl, to Gotham. Donahue, who
decided to try her hand at marijuana farming after her Hollywood acting career
flatlined (she starred in the breakout indie hit The Blair Witch Project), has
a story that Glick thought touches on the cultural zeitgeist as much as the
news cycle. Citing the popularity of shows like Weeds—in which Mary Louise
Parker plays an upper-class, widowed, suburban mom who starts selling pot—Glick
also pumped Donahue's proposal with mentions of political upheaval, noting that
with more states planning to legalize medical marijuana, the farming issues and
laws are becoming more crucial.
Alex Glass, an agent at Trident Media Group who sold Ryan Nerz's
Marijuanamerica to Abrams Image last September, was also pitching a story with
both personal and political implications. Glass said Nerz, whose 2005 title,
Eat This Book, explored the world of competitive eating, "is a lifelong
marijuana enthusiast" and used that background to look at the pot industry "in
the context of his own use and experience." For Glass, the most interesting
things Nerz stirs up in the book are questions about addiction and marijuana's
place on the drug food chain, so to speak. Glass said Nerz is asking a number
of compelling questions: "Are we a nation of addicts? What does it mean to be
addicted?... Is regular marijuana use fun and recreational, healthier and safer
than alcohol? Or is it something darker?" Glass thinks the book has appeal
because it "pops the lid off of a very quirky subculture" in a serious way.
And, as Glass noted, there is the added benefit that pot books sell. Glass also
represents the pot enthusiast magazine High Times and sold its first branded
book to Chronicle, The Official High Times Potsmoker's Handbook; that book has
sold more than 60,000 copies since its 2008 release.
That some people think general use of pot may be legalized in California in
2012 didn't escape certain agents. Michael Strong at Regal Literary, who sold
Doug Grad's Trimming Bud to Avery, played up this possibility in his pitch for
the book. (Grad looks at the various facets of the industry—law, botany,
business—by focusing on the journey a single marijuana seed makes from field to
market.) Strong also noted that the pot industry is now the biggest cash crop
in the country, yet the revenue on it is still going untaxed; "it makes for a
meaningful tax and therefore political narrative."—Rachel Deahl
Other recently acquired nonfiction pot books
Book: Heart of Dankness
Author: screenwriter Mark Haskell Smith
Publisher: Broadway
Agent: Mary Evans, Mary Evans Literary
Book: Reefer Gladness
Author: Michael Konik
Publisher: Huntington Press
Agent: Uwe Stender, TriadaUS
Book: War in the Woods: Combating the Marijuana Cartels on America's Public
Lands
Author: John Nores Jr. and James A. Swan
Publisher: Globe Pequot
Agent: Barbara Moulton, Moulton Agency
Book: Pot of Gold: A Marijuana Virgin's Adventures in the Land of Magical Weed
Author: Greg Campbell
Publisher: Union Square Press
Agent: Ayesha Pande, Collins Literary
Book: Stash
Author: Greg Campbell
Publisher: Union Square Press
Agent: Ayesha Pande, Collins Literary
Also on PW
Game Changer? A Talk with Jane McGonigal
Go Your Own Way more...
Spring 2011 Children's Announcements more...
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