Razorbill Nabs MacHale Trilogy
D.J. MacHale, author of the bestselling middle-grade Pendragon series, has sold a sci-fi adventure trilogy to Razorbill. Laura Arnold, at the Penguin imprint, took world English rights, at auction, from agent Richard Curtis. The first book in the series, which does not yet have a title, is scheduled for summer 2013. The book’s hero is a teenager named Tucker Pierce whose quiet town is turned upside down when a secret division of the U.S. military, known as Sylo, attacks. There are 10 books in the Pendragon series; Aladdin published the first five, and Simon & Schuster the last five.
McDonald Gets Saintly At FSG
Sean McDonald, executive editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, bought world rights to a literary novel about St. Hilda by British author Nicola Griffith. Hild (recalling the saint’s old English name) was sold by Stephanie Cabot at the Gernert Company. St. Hilda, known as Hilda of Whitby (after the monastery she helped found), figured prominently in the spread of Christianity; the agency said the historical work is "in the tradition of Sigrid Undset and Hilary Mantel, and...a story steeped in the beauty and brutality of a different age." Griffith, whose written five novels and lives in Seattle, has won a number of literary awards, including six Lambda prizes.
Tor Signs Tripp for Crossover Fantasy Series
Kirby Kim at William Morris Endeavor closed a three-book deal for an illustrated fantasy series by Ben Tripp with Susan Chang at Tor Teen. Chang took North American rights at auction, and the first book in the series, which Tor Teen plans to market to adults as well, is planned as a lead title for fall 2013. Tripp’s day job is working as an experiential designer—he designs theme parks—and he’s also writing adult zombie novels for Simon & Schuster’s Gallery imprint. Kim described the series as "The Princess Bride meets Stardust."
Godwin Lands at Bloomsbury
Nancy Miller, editorial director at Bloomsbury, acquired world English rights to Gail Godwin’s novel, Flora. Godwin, who was represented by agent Moses Cardona at John Hawkins & Associates, is a three-time National Book Award nominee for, among other titles, The Finishing School. This novel, which is slated for May 2013, is set near the end of WWII and centers on a summer love affair. The publisher said the book offers "a haunting picture of a lost time in America."
Sharfstein Delivers the ‘Thunder’ to Norton
Vanderbilt University professor Daniel Sharfstein sold Thunder in the Mountains to John Glusman at Norton, who took world English rights from agent Wendy Strothman. Sharfstein won the J. Anthony Lukas Prize this year (given by Harvard’s Nieman Foundation to honor the best nonfiction writing in the country) and, in the book, explores the bitter showdown between Union Army Col. Oliver Otis Howard and Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce tribe. Although Howard was a noted abolitionist—Howard University is named after him—his campaign against Joseph marked, as Glusman put it, "an abrupt about-face," in which he "persecuted the Nez Perce, and then capitalized on Joseph’s celebrity." The book is set for fall 2015.
Katz Gets into Haiti Quake For Palgrave Macmillan
Luba Ostashevsky at Palgrave Macmillan took world rights to AP reporter Jonathan Katz’s The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster. David Larabell at the David Black Agency represented Katz in the deal, and Palgrave plans to publish the title in January 2013. Katz was in Haiti when the earthquake hit and offers both a survivor’s account as well as his take on the relief efforts and why, in his opinion, they have failed. Katz won the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award.
Briefs
Marilyn Brigham at Amazon’s Children’s Publishing bought world rights, for six figures at auction, to Chuck Wendig’s Heartland trilogy. Agent Stacia Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency brokered the deal. The series follows a 17-year-old who discovers a secret garden full of rare vegetables in a world where the government only allows the growing of genetically modified corn.
Bestseller Lisa Scottoline signed a three-book deal with her current publisher, St. Martin’s Press. Jennifer Enderlin took North American rights from agent Molly Friedrich, of the Friedrich Agency, in the deal, which follows on the heels of a four-book contract Enderlin inked Scottoline to last fall. The titles in this deal will reprise the characters from the author’s Rosato & Associates series (about the crew at a law firm); the first book is set for summer 2013.
