When Loretta Barrett left Doubleday to form her literary agency, I told her she better make sure that whatever imprimatur she chose for the firm looked good on the spine of a book because—who knew?—maybe someday she would publish a book.
Ta dah, the day has arrived. Although the imprimatur appears only on the title page (because there isn’t any spine), Loretta Barrett Books just published the Kindle edition of JURY DUTY. The same fine people at Fortsmouth Design who have been laboring to train me how to better keep in touch with the world (hence the revamped site) collaborated with Barrett Books to make it happen.
JURY DUTY was originally published by Crown in hardcover and in paperback by MIRA Books. It was the first work of American fiction about a jury to be written by someone who had actually served on a jury.
I know. That was my reaction. You mean the “12 Angry Men” guy– No? All the legal thriller writers? They never…?
I was chosen to serve on a jury for a Manhattan murder trial when the courts were making an effort to expand the jury pool by not automatically rejecting certain professions out of hand. Like novelists. We were formerly considered the prosecutors worst nightmare, jurors who would spin plots from the facts presented at the trial until we settled on what we believed was the most plausible storyline—which may or may not have had anything to do with the truth. (“Ms. Van Wormer, can you tell the difference between fantasy and reality?”)
I did not take notes during the trial and I was not attacked by a fellow juror, but much of what went on in the jury room, and at the hotel near LaGuardia where we were sequestered, found its way into this book.
As a hardcover JURY DUTY was marketed as a mystery thriller while the paperback was marketed as romantic suspense. It was a People Page-Turner but also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. And it appeared in courthouses across the country in the hands of people trying to get out of jury duty.
So JURY DUTY is now available in a Kindle edition. And yes, you’ll see Loretta’s imprimatur on the title page.
Very nice! And may I add, the book is great reading too!