Grand Central Acquires Posthumous Dolly Parton Memoir
Grand Central, the US publishing imprint, has acquired a memoir by Dolly Parton that will appear after her death, according to Page Six. Parton died at age 80 this summer.
The book came to publishers through Folio Literary Management, the agency that sells authors' work to publishers on their behalf. Steve Troha and Jeff Kleinman of Folio emailed publishers in August, shortly after Parton's death, about several projects she had already approved. The autobiography was among them.
Page Six reported that some sources put the advance at $13 million. An advance is the payment a publisher makes up front, against the royalties the book is expected to earn. Another source told Page Six the Grand Central deal was for a lower amount, with a 50/50 royalty split, meaning sales income is shared equally. Yahoo News also reported the $13 million figure on 29 October.
Page Six had reported the sale a day earlier, describing a heated bidding war among publishers before the deal was struck. A bidding war is when several houses compete for the same book, pushing the price up.
Parton's writing has a history of surprises for her readers. In her 2020 memoir, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, she revealed that she had written a song called "My Place in History." Her best-known public project may be the Imagination Library, which she founded in 1995 to send free books to children. Reuters has reported that her legacy continues through those deliveries.
Grand Central has not yet announced a title or publication date for the memoir. Until it does, the book remains a deal on paper, one that started with a manuscript and an agent's inbox in August.
