Hachette NZ Congratulates Greg McGee

November 23, 2012
For immediate release

Hachette NZ Congratulates Greg McGee

Hachette New Zealand, publisher of Richie McCaw’s stunningly successful autobiography The Open Side, is expecting yet another dramatic lift in sales with the announcement that McCaw’s ghost writer, Greg McGee, has been awarded the prestigious Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship.

“We are absolutely delighted for Greg,” says Hachette NZ managing director Kevin Chapman.

“He is one of this country’s very best writers, and has won numerous awards across a number of genres over the years. Quite obviously, his submission to the Fellowship panel would have been of the highest quality.

“The manuscript he produced with Richie McCaw was one of the finest ever to come across Hachette’s New Zealand editorial desk. The quality of the writing has been one of the major drivers behind the success of Richie’s book,” says Mr Chapman.

While he would not be drawn on exact numbers, Mr Chapman confirmed that Hachette had sold out of the first printing of over 60,000 copies “within hours of the book being launched” and that there was already “a very large dent in a very large reprint.”

It is understood that McCaw’s The Open Side, which went on sale just eight weeks ago, has already become New Zealand’s biggest-selling sports biography, surpassing Colin Meads’ 1974 biography, Colin Meads All Black.

The Menton Fellowship is one of New Zealand's oldest and most esteemed literary awards. It provides a residency of at least six months in Menton, France and NZ$75,000. The support of the city of Menton enables a New Zealand author to work at the Villa Isola Bella, where Katherine Mansfield lived and wrote during the latter part of her life.

ENDS

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