With a new book, a new publisher, and a new agent, Chuck Palahniuk is feeling unusually good for a man who’s just survived one of the toughest stretches of his career, according to Mike Harvkey from Publishers Weekly… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!
When Chuck Palahniuk is asked whether he lives his life according to a code, like his most recognizable creation, Tyler Durden, he pauses before offering two. The first—“He who serves best profits most”—he read on a bathroom wall. The second—“Don’t take your foot off the gas until you hear glass breaking”—is a punk rock slogan. No one should be surprised that the author of Fight Club embraces a personal philosophy that is at war with itself.
War, at least in the publishing business, is a topic Palahniuk knows something about. While it might be cliché to call him a survivor, he’s weathered his share of storms in his 23-year career. Now—with two new books on the horizon, a new literary agent, and a new publishing house—he’s closing one of the most tumultuous chapters of his literary life and putting brushes with bankruptcy, professional malfeasance, and bad luck behind him.
Palahniuk is best known for the second book he wrote, which was the first he published: Fight Club. Released in 1996, the novel earned him an advance of $7,000. Far from an instant bestseller, it didn’t gain any real traction until David Fincher’s film adaptation found a following on home video and in turn directed a cult of fervent fans Palahniuk’s way.
Since Fight Club, Palahniuk, whose soft center is shelled by a hard anarchist crust, has released a book a year, with few exceptions. His fourth novel, Choke, was also adapted to film. His third, Invisible Monsters, is in series development now—one of six TV projects that he’s currently working on, including an anthology series for Apple TV titled Best Intentions (Palahniuk describes the show as “like Black Mirror but darker”).
Those aren’t the only balls Palahniuk has in the air, either: he’s currently reviewing art for the Fight Club 3 comic series; anticipating edits to his next novel; writing an introduction for a reissue of Rosemary’s Baby; teaching a weekly workshop in his hometown of Portland, Ore.; supervising an anthology of his students’ work; and preparing a talk for venture capitalists.
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