Lu Sticks with Penguin
Marie Lu, the author behind the popular YA series Legend (Penguin Group), closed a three-book deal with Putnam Books for Young Readers to launch a new series. Jen Besser took world rights in the transaction from agent Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary. The new series, set in what Putnam described as a “Renaissance-like world,” is called The Young Elites. It follows three rival societies with supernatural powers battling for supremacy. The first book in the series is set for fall 2014.
Beltway Insider to Putnam
Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Todd Moss closed a two-book, world-rights deal with G.P. Putnam’s Sons’ Neil Nyren. Josh Getzler at Hannigan Salky Getzler represented the author, and both books, which are novels, will feature an international crisis expert named Judd Ryker. The first book, The Golden Hour, is about a coup in Africa and, Putnam said, “the frantic efforts to reverse it amidst intense State, Defense, military, and CIA infighting.” Moss is currently working at the Center for Global Development, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank.
GCP ‘Forgets’ with Blaedel
At Grand Central Publishing, Mitch Hoffman bought North American rights, at auction, to Sara Blaedel’s thriller The Forgotten Girls. Hoffman, who also acquired the book’s planned sequel, brokered the deal with Victoria Sanders, who has an eponymous agency. Blaedel is a bestseller in her native Denmark, where The Forgotten Girls has already, GCP noted, sold over 100,000 copies. The novel and its sequel feature Blaedel’s recurring character, homicide detective Louise Rick.
Female Larry David Goes to Atria
Dawn Davis, for her new imprint at Atria, bought world rights to Issa Rae’s comedic essay collection, Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl. The book takes its title from Rae’s Web series, which became a viral smash, having drawn over 14 million views on YouTube. Rae recently graduated from Stanford and has received favorable press coverage, being compared to Larry David by the New York Times and named one of the 23 funniest people in the country by Rolling Stone; she was represented by Richard Abate at 3 Arts, and her book is scheduled for 2014.
Briefs
Open Road has acquired J. Michael Orenduff’s previously self-published six-book series, Pot Thief. Tina Pohlman bought print and digital North American and open market rights from Philip Turner at Philip Turner Books, who brokered the sale on behalf of the Silver Bitela Agency. The series, which is set in and around Albuquerque, features an amateur detective team made up of a Native American pottery dealer and his wise-cracking sidekick. The first book in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, will be released in 2014, with the others following shortly thereafter.
Heather Lazare at Touchstone bought North American and open market rights to Nancy Bilyeau’s The Covenant, which marks the third book in her Joanna Stafford series. Heide Lange at Sanford J. Greenburger represented Bilyeau. In the book, the heroine’s life is in danger and she must find out who in the court of Henry VIII wants her dead.
Hollye Jacobs has sold a book to Atria’s Sarah Branham that is part breast cancer memoir, part medical guide. Jacobs has R.N., M.S., and M.S.W. degrees, and in the book, The Silver Lining: An Insightful Guide to the Realities of Breast Cancer, she chronicles her first year of treatments. She began blogging about her experience in 2010 at TheSilverPen.com, a Web site that gained national media attention. Jacobs was represented by Jill Cohen at Jill Cohen Associates.
