GalleyCat | January 27, 2012 by Maryann Yin

Actor Tom Isbell has landed a seven-figure book deal at HarperCollins’ children’s division for a young adult fantasy trilogy.

The first book is entitled The Hatchery. Literary agent Victoria Sanders negotiated the deal with acquiring editors Alyson Day and Phoebe Yeh. A tentative publication date has been set for 2013.

Isbell has starred in movies alongside Robert De Niro and Ed Harris. He has also written children’s plays; he is currently adapting Rodman Philbrick‘s Newberry Honor-winning book, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (to be produced by Theatre for Young Audiences at the Kennedy Center in the fall of 2012).

When asked on why he has decided to branch out from scripting plays to writing novels, Isbell gave GalleyCat this quote: “Reading was my passion growing up, so I want to pass that on to others.” (via Susan Dennard)


Publishers Marketplace | January 25, 2012

Playwright and actor Tom Isbell’s THE HATCHERY, set in a post-apocalyptic future about a group of sixteen-year-old boys called Less Thans, who are convinced that their overseers at the orphanage are raising them as prey for hunters who kill for sport, to Alyson Day and Phoebe Yeh at Harper Children’s, in a major deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in 2013, by Victoria Sanders at Victoria Sanders & Associates (NA).