The author behind the @GSElevator Twitter account — whose six-figure book deal was cancelled by Simon & Schuster amid questions over whether he misrepresented himself — has landed a new publisher, Grove Atlantic, and a six-figure advance.
John LeFevre had originally signed to write “Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance and Excess in the World of Investment Banking” for Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone imprint as an anonymous blogger who passed off his tweets as real-life conversations overhead inside the elevators at Goldman Sachs.
The deal fell apart when he was subsequently unmasked as a former finance executive who had never actually worked at the storied investment bank.
There were also questions over whether the tweets the 34-year-old Texan presented as his own were actually his or were lifted from the tweets of another individual.
But Grove Atlantic seems more interested in his 650,000 Twitter followers than questions about his past.
Unlike Simon & Schuster, which bought the book without revealing his identity, Grove included some biographical info on LeFevre in making the announcement Wednesday morning.
“LeFevre joined Salomon Brothers immediately out of college and had a distinguished career in international finance, working in New York, London, and Hong Kong,” Grove Atlantic said in its announcement.
The publisher also touched on LeFevre’s brief brush with Goldman Sachs, where a contract to join its Asia desk was subsequently withdrawn.
“In 2010, Goldman Sachs hired him to be its head of Asia Debt Syndicate, a position that he was eventually unable to take due to a contractual issue,” Grove said.
“John’s satirical voice captures the outrageous, excessive yet fascinating lives and culture of a certain segment of the international banking elite,” said Morgan Entrekin, Grove Atlantic’s publisher.
Byrd Leavell at the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency handled the deal. The book, which will be edited by senior editor Jamison Stoltz, is set to hit bookshelves in November, even though LeFevre has not yet completed the manuscript.