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Tina Fey’s book deal

Tina Fey is planning to add “author” to her list of accomplishments. The Emmy-award-winning actress and Sarah Palin impersonator has inked a U.S. $6-million deal with Little, Brown & Co.

An article in today’s National Post suggests that while the advance is huge and Fey is an untested author, and publishers were reportedly expected to bid on the book without so much as a meeting or proposal, sales in Canada will still be successful.

“I still think a hell of a lot of Canadians will buy the book,” says Anne Collins, publisher of Random House Canada. “There’s her work on 30 Rock and her drop-dead satiric take on Sarah Palin, but that’s not what they’re betting on — they’re betting even bigger on the Tina Fey brand, and I think she can deliver that in book form.”

As a fellow author/comedian on this side of the border notes, it’s an “only in America” publishing moment.

“Six million for a book sounds good to me,” says Rick Mercer, author of Rick Mercer Report: The Book, out this month in paperback. “Canada is a different animal. I’m No. 5 on the Canadian best-seller list right now — I’ve been with three political campaigns this week, and it hasn’t been mentioned once.”