The Fair only just got underway a few hours ago but already, some pricey, buzz-laden deals are filtering out from the halls of Earls Court to the book trade publications' daily broadsheets and online arms. First up is Ali Gunn chatting up a couple of linked novels by saying "What PRIMARY COLORS was to Capitol Hill, EGO will be to the media world." The attraction for EGO and its follow-up, GREED isn't that either book is complete, but that its co-authors are doing their damndest to stay anonymous, reports Publishing News. The male half is American and "an international author published in 17 countries." His co-writer is an agent, based in London but working on both sides of the Atlantic, "a master of the ins and outs of agency life," said Gunn, though she refused to be drawn on the agent's sex or age, adding simply that "they're old enough to buy a drink but too young to retire."

Gunn is trying very hard to drum up attention by only showing the first 30,000 words and synopsis to "a select group of hand-picked editors" (Deborah Schneider will work the US publishing beat) but unless she can really, truly convince said publishers to then turn around and show how these books will reach a broader audience than, say, BECAUSE SHE CAN or BLIND SUBMISSION or any number of DEVIL WEARS PRADA knockoffs, then EGO and GREED will just end up being the latest in a series of media-driven earnout bombs. Of course, one can still have quite a lot of fun guessing the authors' identities - I rather like Curtis Brown agent Elizabeth Sheinkman as the agent half...