EXCLUSIVE: TJ Newman, the flight attendant who gave up her wings to become the best-selling author of action-thriller novels made into films Falling And Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421She takes her next flight with Little Brown.
It’s a shock to the publishing industry that Newman has left Simon & Schuster and signed a new multi-million dollar mega-deal with Little Brown. Newman’s first novel for Little Brown is called Worst case scenario and it will be released on August 13th. The film rights will be auctioned off before the novel gets a big push from her new publisher. Newman stays in her wheelhouse—it all starts with a commercial flight—but the book veers into tent-pole territory that could draw comparisons independence Day or war of the Worlds meets Chernobyl. The campaign is about humanity preventing a catastrophe threatened with extinction.
When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner crashes into a nuclear power plant. Only the efforts of residents of a small Midwestern town can prevent the worst-case scenario.
Newman’s first two novels, Falling And Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 There were week-long auctions of film rights that were fiercely competitive before the film was sold to Universal and Warner Brothers for large seven-figure prices.
Newman, now known for scribbling her work on napkins between her duties as a flight attendant, earned $35,000 a year for the past two years and signed five seven-figure contracts for books published in 40 countries named one of the best books of the year by Amazon charts.
Falling has inked a seven-figure film deal with Universal and Working Title, and the screenplay is being written by Newman and Shane Salerno, the latter producing alongside Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan.
Newman’s follow-up, Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 was purchased by Warner Brothers in a $3 million deal. United 93Directed by Paul Greengrass and Steve Kloves (Harry Potter) writes the script. Greengrass produces with Salerno and Greg Goodman, with Newman and Amy Lord serving as executive producers.
With “Little Brown,” Newman joins the ranks of thriller authors that include James Patterson, Michael Connelly and David Baldacci. Patterson championed both of Newman’s books. Newman’s new contract was secured by The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno, who took on the aspiring author when her first book submission was rejected by 41 agents.