Most expensive novel debut

Sunday Times journalist Paul Eddy (UK) was reported to have been paid $2.8 million (£1.7 million) for his first novel Flint and its unwritten (at that time) sequel by British and American publishers in 1999. The crime thriller is about an undercover policewoman called Grace Flint. Although Eddy has published several non-fiction books, Flint was the investigative reporter's first venture into fiction.