'Foolish' Idea: A female undercover cop, named Flint.
Start-up Costs: Nominal.
How Idea was Launched: Through top London Agent, Ed Victor.
Within a month, Flint, which is a story of a Scotland Yard-based policewoman, had been snapped up by British American and European Publishers.
Sales: Bookshops.
Earnings: A deal for two books, worth more than £1.2 million.
Spin-offs: Warner Brothers are interested in making a film.
Paul Eddy, a journalist with 35 years of experience, secured a £1 million deal for his debut novel. The book's protagonist, Flint, is a female undercover cop whose character he had been developing for five years. During that time, he wrote about 25,000 words but felt it wasn't right. While on holiday in Tuscany, he revisited his work, and the story finally came together. Flint, whose full name is Grace Flint, is a 33-year-old Scotland Yard policewoman working undercover. The plot is partly set in the United States. Beyond her professional life, Flint is portrayed as an attractive but emotionally scarred divorcee who still shares a complex relationship with her ex-husband. Paul drew inspiration for Flint from three undercover policewomen he had encountered during his extensive work in the United States as a journalist.
Paul had written the first 40,000 words of Flint, when he was in France, having dinner with a British couple. The wife complained there was nothing to read, so Paul gave her those first words of Flint. She enjoyed the story so much, that her husband, the publisher, Bob Gavron, put Paul Eddy in touch with Ed Victor, a top London Agent. Ed said that the character Grace Flint was a woman he'd like to sleep with. Within a month, Ed Victor had secured a deal with British, American and European publishers. The mixture of emotion and undercover female cop is clearly an appealing idea and the author also believes publishers were interested that a man was writing about a woman. Whatever the reasons, Flint has earned Paul Eddy a cool £1.2million deal.