Ex-Politico Goes to Rodale
Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, sold a book called How to Sweet Talk a Shark: Strategies and Stories from a Master Negotiator, to Rodale’s Mike Zimmerman. Richardson represented himself in the deal, and will be coauthoring the project with Daily Show writer Kevin Bleyer. Richardson, who has ironed out deals with an array of heavies, from Fidel Castro to the Taliban, said the book features the “intense, sometimes absurd” stories behind these negotiations, and it will teach readers skills they can use in their own lives. The book is scheduled for fall 2013.

Shin Leaves Knopf for Other Press
Publisher of Other Press, Judith Gurewich, bought world English rights to South Korean novelist Kyung-sook Shin’s I’ll Be Right There. Agent Barbara J. Zitwer brokered the sale for Shin, who won the 2012 Man Asian Prize and also wrote the 2011 New York Times bestseller, Please Look After Mom, which was published by Knopf in the U.S. I’ll Be Right There was published in South Korea in 2010 and became a bestseller in China, where it was released in 2011. I’ll Be Right There, which will come out in the U.S. in 2014, is, Other Press explained, a work that “merges reminiscences, Korean history, the influence of Western literature and poetry, the formative university years, and the impact of friendship and love on the shaping of identity.”

Meister Returns to Parker, & Putnam
Using Dorothy Parker as her literary muse once again, novelist Ellen Meister sold a new book about the famous author to Putnam. Meghan Wagner nabbed North American rights to a currently untitled novel from agents Andrea Cirillo and Annelise Robey at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. The agency said this work, which follows Farewell, Dorothy Parker (Putnam, Feb. 2013), features “a new posthumous adventure taking place at the Algonquin Hotel.” Putnam, which aims to publish in early 2015, will try to leverage the active Facebook following Meister has cultivated around Farewell; she has a Parker-themed fan page, the Rotrosen Agency noted, with nearly 75,000 fans.

Danielle Steel Gets ‘Pretty,’ for the Kids
Danielle Steel has inked a deal with Random House Children’s Books to write a picture book called Pretty Minnie In Paris. In the sale, agent Julie Just at Janklow & Nesbit sold world rights to Frances Gilbert, the editorial director of Doubleday Books for Young Readers. The title, which RH said is inspired by the author’s beloved Chihuahua, is set for fall 2014, and will be illustrated by Kristi Valiant (The Goodbye Cancer Garden). The book, RH elaborated, tells the “stylish tale” of the eponymous pooch and her adventure in the City of Lights.

LBYR Gets ‘Dogged’ Again
Little, Brown Books for Young Reader’s Connie Hsu took world rights to Underwater Dogs: Kid’s Edition. The book will be the children’s companion to Underwater Dogs, the bestselling adult photography book by Seth Casteel (which LB published in October 2012). Casteel, LBYR said, began developing the book after receiving hundreds of e-mails from mothers requesting a version of the book for their kids. Michelle Tessler at Tessler Literary Agency represented Casteel; the title is scheduled for release in September 2013.

Briefs
Pulitzer-winning biologist E.O. Wilson sold a new book about the creation of a model park in Mozambique to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster. John Taylor “Ike” Williams at Kneerim, Williams & Bloom handled the sale. The agency said the book will “transform our thinking about preserving biodiversity.”
Bloomsbury’s Nancy Miller took world English rights, at auction, to TaraShea Nesbit’s debut novel, The Wives of Los Alamos. Agent Julie Barer brokered the deal, and the book, set for publication in winter 2014, will present stories about the men who created the atomic bomb from the viewpoint of their wives, told in what Bloomsbury called their “collective voices.”
At NAL, Brent Howard bought world rights to Mitchell Yockelson’s Forty-Seven Days from agent E.J. McCarthy. The book, McCarthy said, will “explore how the U.S. Army came of age to defeat the German military in World War I.” The title is scheduled to be released by NAL’s Caliber imprint in summer 2015, to coincide with the centennial of WWI.
Da Capo’s Robert Pigeon bought world rights, at auction, to historian William C. Davis’s Grant and Lee from agent Jim Donovan of Jim Donovan Literary. The title, slated for fall 2014, will be a dual biography of the Civil War generals that, Da Capo said, will detail “how they fashioned a distinctly American war, and a lasting peace, that fundamentally changed our nation.”

Correction
In last week’s column, Simmone Howell’s YA novel was listed incorrectly; the book is called Girl Defective, not Girl Detective.