Return of the Bestsellers
At Viking, Clare Ferraro has signed up a new book by Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire author Rafe Esquith via Bonnie Solow, who sold world rights. The untitled book, aimed primarily at parents, but applicable to anyone who works with children, will share the values and lessons he teaches his inner-city fourth-grade class, and will include stories about the children who have used Esquith's guidance to negotiate the treacherous paths of growing up. Teach was a bestseller for Viking in 2007; pub date for the new book is fall 2009.
Berkley editorial director Susan Allison has signed up three more Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novels from Laurell K. Hamilton via Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House, who negotiated the seven-figure North American rights deal. The first of the three books—the 16th in the series, following the just published Blood Noir—will appear in 2009.
The Year of Fog author Michelle Richmond has inked a new deal with Caitlin Alexander at Delacorte for two unwritten novels; Valerie Borchardt made the world English sale. Delacorte will publish Richmond's No One You Know next month, and British rights to the new book and Fog, which has been a bestseller in paperback for Bantam, have just sold to Ebury in the U.K.
At St. Martin's, Jennifer Enderlin bought North American rights to two new books by Lisa Lillien, author of Hungry Girl: Recipes and Strategies for Guilt Free Eating in the Real World. The first, 200 Under 200, sharing 200 recipes under 200 calories, will pub in spring 2009; Hungry Girl is currently on the New York Times paperback bestseller list. Neeti Madan at Sterling Lord made the sale.
Hyperion Takes Two
Gretchen Young and Will Balliett won a multiday auction for Pulitzer winner Thomas French'sZoo Story; Jane Dystel sold world rights. French has followed the reinvention of Tampa, Fla.'s zoo, Lowry Park, for the past four years; his book will explore the contradiction that zoos present—educating the public and providing refuge and support for vanishing species, while exploiting animals for financial gain and amusement—through his account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants, both animal and human. Pub date is sometime in 2010.
Elsewhere at Hyperion, Leslie Wells preempted Francesco Clark'sI'm Not Just Going to Sit Here via Carol Mann, who sold world rights. This is a memoir by a man left paralyzed from a diving accident at age 24, describing the author's life before the accident and how he has moved forward since—starting a successful skin care business with his father and exploring physical and experimental therapies to aid in his own healing. Clark, an ambassador for the Chris and Dana Reeves Foundation, can now extend his arm and is beginning to have sensation in his limbs—amazing his doctors. Pub date January 2010.
Preempt for Twelve
Two days after it was submitted, Jonathan Karp at Twelve preempted My Little Red Book, an anthology of first-person recollections from women and girls on having their first periods. The editor of the book, Rachel Kauder-Nalebuff, an 18-year-old at Choate who will soon be attending Yale, was spurred to collect stories after relating her own first experience to a crowd of 1,000 in a school oratory contest; accounts range from the lighthearted to heart-stopping. Susan Ginsburg at Writers House sold North American rights, and pub date is early 2009.
Getty's Story
Collins senior editor Ben Loehnen bought world English rights to Leslie Berlin'sGetty, a biography of oilman J. Paul Getty, via an exclusive submission from Christy Fletcher and Donald Lamm at Fletcher & Parry. Stanford historian Berlin will describe how the tycoon's life and work continue to influence international culture, business and politics. Berlin is also the author of a biography of Robert Noyce, The Man Behind the Microchip, published by Oxford.
First for Tobias
Teri Tobias, foreign rights director at Sanford Greenburger, is also now an agent there and has made her first sale, Lorna Byrne'sAngels in My Hair; Jason Kaufman at Doubleday paid six figures for North American rights. In this true-life tale of a modern mystic, Byrne, a mother of four who lives in rural Ireland, will describe a life filled with visions of angels and mystics; now that her children are nearly grown, she is talking openly about her gift for the first time.
Double O'Donnell
Da Capo executive editor Robert Pigeon has acquired world rights to two new books by Patrick K. O'Donnell via Andrew Zack. The first is They Dared Return, a never-before-told war adventure story of two Jewish soldiers who volunteered to undertake an undercover spy mission within the Third Reich. Both men, one of whom is still living, had family members in concentration camps. The other, Give Me Tomorrow, focuses on a small Marine unit in the Korean War. Both books will publish in fall 2009; Da Capo will publish O'Donnell's World War II book The Brenner Assignment this fall.
