David Vigliano
{{short description|American literary agent (born 1959)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = David Vigliano
| image = | birth_name = David Vigliano
| birth_place = New York, New York, US
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|06|18}}
| occupation = Literary agent, Entrepreneur
| alma_mater = Hunter College
Harvard University Business School
| boards =
| website = {{URL|http://viglianoassociates.com/}}
}}
David Vigliano is an American literary agent. He is the founder and head of Vigliano Associates, a boutique literary agency. He is best known for working with "headline-making" authors and for negotiating record-setting advances. Since 2002, 112 of his projects have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list, with 22 hitting the #1 position.{{cite web |title=City File on David Vigliano |url=http://gawker.com/550808/david-vigliano |work=February 3, 2008 |publisher=Gawker |access-date=7 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222040928/http://gawker.com/550808/david-vigliano |archive-date=22 February 2014 }}{{cite news|last=David|first=Anna|title=The Celebrity Book Frenzy|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/07/19/celebrity-book-successes-chelsea-handler-tori-spelling-and-failures-sarah-silverman-kathy-griffin-and-kate-gosselin-in-the-bubble-book-economy.html|work=July 17, 2010|date=19 July 2010 |publisher=The Daily Beast|access-date=7 February 2014}}{{cite news |last=Weeks |first=Linton |title=The Vig: Wheel Behind The Deal |url=http://www.viglianoassociates.com/press/dviglianowashpost/ |date=June 4, 2003 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=7 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822203354/http://www.viglianoassociates.com/press/dviglianowashpost/ |archive-date=22 August 2014 }}{{cite web|last=Kolhatkar|first=Sheila|title=Hey, Victim, Want a Book Deal?|url=http://observer.com/2006/04/hey-victim-want-a-book-deal-jill-carrolls-posttrauma-choice/#axzz2sf83mcVE|work=April 24, 2006|date=24 April 2006 |publisher=The New York Observer|access-date=8 February 2014}}{{cite news|last1=Kelly|first1=Keith J.|title=Vigliano selling agency to Y Entertainment|url=https://nypost.com/2014/10/29/vigliano-selling-agency-to-y-entertainment/|access-date=8 January 2015|publisher=New York Post|date=October 29, 2014}}
Early life and education
Vigliano was born in New York. His mother, Barbara Murphy Vigliano, was an actress who starred in live television shows in the 1940s, and his father Eli was a lawyer, as is David's brother Dean. Vigliano attended Hunter College, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in communications, and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1983.{{cite web |last=Singer |first=Jill |title=Pitching an Agent: Vigliano Associates |url=http://www.mediabistro.com/Pitching-an-Agent-Vigliano-Associates-a2183.html |work=August 17, 2004 |publisher=Media Bistro |access-date=7 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120817055714/http://www.mediabistro.com/Pitching-an-Agent-Vigliano-Associates-a2183.html |archive-date=17 August 2012 }}
Career
Following college, Vigliano returned to New York, where he was hired as the Director of Packaging at Warner Books. There, Vigliano moved beyond the traditional practice of passively acquiring new properties, and instead generated book ideas and pursued new authors. In 1986, with no experience as a literary agent, he founded Vigliano Associates.{{cite web|title=David Vigliano Agent info|url=https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ViglianoAssociates|work=2014|publisher=Smashwords|access-date=8 February 2014}}
While he represents both fiction and non-fiction, Vigliano has received significant attention for securing substantial advances for celebrities, including a reported $4,000,000 advance for Kurt Cobain's journals in 2000.{{cite web|last=Patterson|first=Tom|title=His Last Writes|url=https://ew.com/article/2002/11/15/inside-story-how-cobains-journals-went-public/|work=November 15, 2002|publisher=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=8 February 2014}} His notable clients have included Michael Jackson, George Noory Justin Timberlake, Mike Tyson, Shaquille O'Neal, Willie Nelson, Joanna Gaines, Chip Gaines, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, David Blaine, Prince, Pearl Jam, Scott Weiland, Rocco DiSpirito, Courtney Love, Anthony Kiedis, Suzanne Somers, and Pope John Paul II. His roster also includes Bob Greene, Melody Beattie, Nicholas Perricone, Jerry Jenkins, Ben Parr, and Blake Mycoskie. Vigliano's literary projects include artist James Rosenquist's autobiography, Eddie Little's Another Day in Paradise, and Douglas Coupland's Generation X, which sold more than 1,000,000 copies.{{cite web|title='Generation X' author turns to Pantheon|url=https://variety.com/1998/voices/columns/generation-x-author-turns-to-pantheon-1117489021/|work=December 1, 1998|date=2 December 1998 |publisher=Variety|access-date=9 February 2014}}{{cite web|last=Hagan|first=Joe|title=The Blair Pitch Project|url=http://observer.com/2003/05/the-blair-pitch-project/#axzz2sf83mcVE|work=May 26, 2003|date=26 May 2003 |publisher=The Observer|access-date=8 February 2014}}
Vigliano has negotiated film rights for several of his books. Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House, was the source material for MGM's 21,{{cite web|last=Fleming|first=Michael|title=Trigger Street bets on the 'House'|url=https://variety.com/2002/film/news/trigger-street-bets-on-the-house-1117873053/|work=September 19, 2002|date=20 September 2002 |publisher=Variety|access-date=9 February 2014}} and The Oldest Rookie, by Jim Morris and Joe Engel,{{cite web|title=Hot Deals|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/19991220/27665-hot-deals.html|work=December 20, 1999|publisher=Publishers Weekly|access-date=9 February 2014}} was adapted into the Disney movie The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid. An article by Mike Sager in GQ was adapted into the Touchstone film Veronica Guerin, starring Cate Blanchett.
In 2012, he started Vigliano Books, an electronic book publishing venture that has worked with authors such as Tim Cowlishaw, Richard Belzer, David Blaine, Linda Davies, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Although he continued to run it, in 2014 Vigliano sold the company to Y Entertainment. He reacquired it in April 2020.{{Cite web|title=Lit Agent David Vigliano Re-Acquires His Agency Six Years After Sale|url=https://deadline.com/2020/04/david-vigliano-literary-agent-new-company-vigliano-associates-books-1202921518/|last=Hipes|first=Patrick|date=2020-04-30|website=Deadline|language=en|access-date=2020-05-06}}
Personal life
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.viglianoassociates.com/ Vigliano Associates ]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigliano, David}}
Category:American literary agents