Psychic Gifts

Jim Frey e-mailed me the other day and said he had written a book I ought to take a look at. It was the biography of Annette Martin who, Jim told me, is America's greatest psychic.

I admire Jim's writing, but wasn't particularly excited about publishing a memoir and didn't know a thing about Annette. Still, I asked Jim to send me the manuscript. He and Annette have been friends for years and Jim evolved from a position of skepticism of Annette's abilities to a believer.

I read parts of the manuscript and thought, "How nice it would be to get a book in that doesn't require heavy editing or worse yet, rewriting." Jim's, as would be expected from one of the best novelists and writing teachers on the planet, is not only well written but tells an amazing story. Still it is a memoir, one of the toughest genres to market unless the subject is famous. I had my doubts that QDB should get involved.

Friday, Annette, Jim, and my friend Cassandra Williams—who, coincidentally, knew Annette from 20 years ago—met at Annette's house in Los Gatos. It's a beautiful house with a gorgeously-flowered back yard. Annette had spread photos and articles out on the dining room table for us to go over.

Annette has an amazing set of accomplishments. She is active with police departments across the nation and has about 10 ongoing investigations where she has identified the killer, helped find the body, or otherwise helped solved the case. These she can't discuss until the appeal process ends, but she has dozens of ones she can.

The episode of Psychic Detectives that chronicles a missing person case she solved is the third most popular of all of the episodes and was sold from whatever cable TV network it's on to NBC which still airs it now and again. She also has done a show for Psychic Investigators which airs in Canada. She is an entertainer/opera singer who still performs. She's had stories about her in Cosmopolitan, the San Francisco Chronicle and dozens of other publications.

She has been on lots of TV programs, Montel Williams, and others. She had her own radio show in the Bay Area and in Hawaii.

She still does readings of the standard love and health kind for individuals and she channels Edgar Cayce--the most famous psychic of them all when the situation calls for it. Yes, seemingly sooo strange, but likely not without some kind of merit. Hordes of intelligent, well-educated people endorse her—including Buzz Aldrin.

She is delightful. I'd say she has recently passed the 70-year milestone, but looks and acts 10 years younger. Lots of irons in the fire, a real go-getter. She has a film agent and currently has three shows she is hawking to TV.

I had gone to the meeting thinking that I'd leave telling Jim and Annette I needed to think about it before making an offer for the book. Yet, after about two hours of conversation, I was sold. I cemented my decision by asking Annette, "If Quill Driver Books were to publish the book, would it be a success?" She instantly shot back a vigorous "Yes!" So there you have it, for the first time in my decade-and-a-half career as a publisher, I know in advance that I have a book that will sell well.

Since it is already written and doesn't need much editing, we can make it a spring 2008 title.

Annette will be a delight to work with. She'll travel and do free readings at bookstores and conferences. We should be able to draw a crowd anywhere she goes.

She's used to being interviewed and she and her psychic journey should be good fodder for talk shows. We'll have her do readings at the Northern California Independent Bookseller Association's annual October conference to whet the appetite of Bay Area books sellers and get us mentioned in Publishers Weekly's coverage of the show.

The working title of the book is The Gift of the White Light: The Life and Times of Annette Martin, America's Greatest Psychic. Watch for it, it'll be fun to see if Annette's prediction of best-sellerdom materializes.