James Franco Signs Deal with Amazon for First Novel

10:43 AM PST 1/4/2012 by Andy Lewis
Franco's Schooling Pays Off
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

The novel, "Actor's Anonymous," a fictional take on his acting career, marks another aggressive move by Amazon into publishing.

James Franco signed with Amazon to publish a novel "Actor's Anonymous," which is reported to be a fictionalized telling of his life as an actor. No publication date was announced.

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The novel will be Franco's thrid book but his first novel. He published Palo Alto, a book of short stories, in October 2010. In April Rizzoli will publish James Franco: Dangerous Book Four Boys, a collection of material drawn from 2010 art show Franco helped curate that played in New York and other cities. 
 
Franco has famously eclectic interests. In addition to his writing and work as an artist, he has pursued a Ph.D. in literature at Yale, an M.A. degree in creative writing from Columbia, and a degree in filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School for the Creative Arts.
 
 
Franco just completed filming a role in Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful. Earlier this year, he starred in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
 
Amazon's signing of Franco is another indication of the e-commerce giant's push into publishing. Other notables who have signed to publish books with them include Penny Marshall, Deepak Chopra, and Timothy Feriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek . The company has also been aggresively expanding its other imprints, including genre imprints in science fiction and mystries.
 
Franco is represented by Richard Abate of 3 Arts Entertainment, who become the go to book agent for many in Hollywood. His clients include Tina Fey,  Mindy Kaling, Dick Wolf, and Jerry O'Connell. 

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