James Franco Inks Deal for Debut Novel With Amazon Publishing

Posted on January 4, 2012

The New York Observer reports that James Franco is publishing his first novel. Franco eschewed traditional publishers such as Scribner, who published a book of his short stories Palo Alto: Stories, and decided to go with Amazon Publishing.

Franco's novel is called Actors Anonymous. It was acquired by Ed Park, Amazon's fiction editor. The book is a reportedly a fictionalized version of Franco's experiences as an actor. If he dishes the dirt it could be a hit.

In the preface of the book, Franco talks about self-hatred in actors. He says, " have met many actors from all over the world. It is hard to find a common denominator, but there are many similarities in most of the actors I meet. There is usually an ingredient of self-hatred that underlies actors. This hatred manifests in different ways; sometimes it is so buried that it is virtually unnoticeable, but don't be fooled, it's there. Anyone that is driven to play dress-up for a living is trying to hide something either from himself or from others. "

Update: Franco went with a skull for the cover.