At a Vanity Fair party in NYC, HarperCollins Publisher Jane Friedman,left; Irene Webb, center, and an author Burt Boyer celebrate a HarperCollins book excerpted by Vanity Fair.

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Authorlink Audio Interview
With Irene Webb,
CEO of Irene Webb Literary
Audio Length: 26 min.

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Irene Webb, CEO of Irene Webb Literary, Film Representation and Publishing, is celebrating four film and TV productions based on books her agency has sold--a rare accomplishment in the business. Her latest projects include:

• EAST TO THE DAWN by Susan Butler, filming in Canada, staring Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart
• FLIRTING WITH FORTY by Jane Porter, filming now at Lifetime, starring Heather Locklear
• THE BOX, based on a short story by Richard Matheson, just finished shooting with Cameron Diaz in the lead.
• ARMY WIVES by Tanya Biank Marti, the Lifetime hit TV series, beginning its second season on air, June 8th.
  

Irene Webb Literary is a bridge between the publishing world and the film and TV industry with a reputation for handling top quality film material. The agency handles marketing, negotiating and selling media rights on behalf of writers, publishers, and top independent literary agencies from all around the country.

Webb has an unrivaled depth of experience in the publishing and film industries: selling rights at Alfred A. Knopf and G. P. Putnam’s for hundreds of books, making six and seven-figure deals for authors such as Peter Straub, Robin Cook, and setting industry records by selling paperback rights for Mario Puzo’s books, THE GODFATHER and FOOLS DIE, and getting the largest sum for a TV mini-series ever, with SCARLETT, Sequel to Gone With the Wind at CBS.

The former Vice President in charge of film rights at International Creative Management, Webb made more than $5 million worth of deals on behalf of authors including Caleb Carr, Cormac McCarthy, Howard Blum, Anna Quindlin, Carl Hiassen, and the comic book, MEN IN BLACK. While VP of the William Morris Agency, Webb was renown for selling film and TV rights for commercial and literary authors, including Dominick Dunne, Susan Isaacs, Tom Clancy, H.G. Bissinger, Carrie Fisher, Gregory McDonald, John Updike, and Douglas Adams.

Irene has built strong relationships with all the top film and television producers, studios, and artists, including actors, directors, writers and their representatives. Working in various capacities with actors such as Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts and many others, Webb has a strong network of contacts in the film business. Webb’s extensive experience working with one foot in Hollywood and one in New York enables her to be a top deal maker in both arenas.

Here, she talks about her long career and the state of the book industry.