E.L. James may have been momentarily bumped from her perch atop the bestseller list, but the genre she reignited, erotica, shows no signs of cooling off. Cindy Hwang, executive editor at Penguin's Berkley Books imprint, has signed up an erotic trilogy from bestselling romance author Maya Banks for seven figures. Agent Kimberly Whalen at Trident Media Group handled the world English rights deal for Banks, and the first book in the trilogy, Rush, is set for February 2013.
Other deals have also closed for the series--it's called the Breathless trilogy--with Mondadori pre-empting the book in Italy and, per Penguin, a six-figure deal for audio rights from Brilliance Audio about to close.
The series follows three men, and business partners, who Penguin said "dominate in both the boardroom and the bedroom." Each book--Fever is scheduled for April 2013 and Burn for August 2013--will follow one of the men as he finds love.
