Can James Franco be a bestseller?

It’s a small thing, but over and over again I’ve seen industry observers appear impressed that Amazon Publishing — recently renamed “Amazon Publishing’s East Coast Group” — was able to acquire James Franco’s first novel, Actors Anonymous. The Times headlined the acquisition a “coup” and wrote that it was “one of the most high-profile acquisitions that Amazon Publishing has made.”

But there are reasons to be skeptical that Actors Anonymous will be a commercial success.

Franco’s first book, a collection of stories called Palo Alto, was reviewed negatively almost everywhere, and it has been far from a commercial hit for its publisher, Scribner. According to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks about 70 percent of U.S. booksales but does not currently track ebook sales, the book sold just 16,000 copies in hardcover and 7,500 copies in paperback. Sales have also slowed significantly since the book was released in October 2010: last week, the book sold just 75 copies, according to Bookscan.

While certainly respectable figures for a debut collection of short stories, the modest numbers mean the advance for Palo Alto — almost sure to have been over six figures — likely hasn’t earned out. (That is, unless serial, audio, or significant foreign rights were included in Franco’s deal with Scribner and somehow made up the difference.)

Amazon Publishing plans to publish more than 100 books over the next few months, and the list of the company’s impressive acquisitions almost always includes Franco alongside actual mega-selling authors Tim Ferriss and Deepak Chopra.

According to at least one reliable critic—Slate‘s David Haglund—there’s reason to believe the new novel will be good, perhaps better than his story collection. But the book’s quality probably doesn’t matter all that much. Franco is a celebrity, and that’s likely the main attraction for Amazon — his fame will make the novel much easier to promote. As a publishing property, however, it’s far from a sure thing.

Kelly Burdick is the executive editor of Melville House.

3 Comments

AG at 5:19 pm on February 16, 2012

There is a very easy answer to the question proposed in this title: Absolutely Not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big James Franco fan – he knocked it out of the park in 127 Hours, but Palo Alto was a real stinker. His writing style was atrocious beginning with a compassion of beer to warm urine in the first few pages. From there it was evident that it was going to be a slippery slope downhill. The book came off as an unedited stream of conscious that should not have ever been sent to print without 10 revisions and a ghostwriter’s touch.

A few months ago an NYU professor claimed he was fired for giving James Franco a “D” in class, if you ask me, that’s being gracious. If it was comparable to Palo Alto, I would have given it an F+ for effort.

Just as all writers can’t be good actors, not all actors can be good writers.
Hansy at 1:39 am on February 17, 2012

Yeah!!, Best known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks.
Precub_m at 9:32 am on March 27, 2012

franco,i am your brother.