Carter Launches ‘Embassy’ At Scholastic
Bestselling author Ally Carter (Heist Society and Gallagher Girls) sold a new YA trilogy called Embassy Row to Scholastic. In the deal, David Levithan, v-p and editorial director, bought North American rights from agent Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary. The story line centers on a teenage Army brat named Grace who Scholastic called a “daredevil” and “rebel.” The only granddaughter of a powerful ambassador, Grace, after years summering abroad, returns to the States to solve the mystery surrounding her mother’s death. The first book in the series is set for 2015.
Katherine Tegen Falls in ‘Love’ with Colasanti
For her namesake children’s imprint at HarperCollins, Katherine Tegen signed Susane Colasanti, for mid-six figures, to a three-book, North American rights deal for a new series called City Love. Emily van Beek at Folio Jr. (the children’s division of Folio Literary Management) said the series is a “romance and sisterhood” one, with “crossover potential.” The books are about three girls who, van Beek added, are “teetering somewhere between childhood and adulthood, and will clash and weave as they struggle to find the balance between their ambitions, their pasts, and their own complicated hearts.” The first book in the series is scheduled for summer 2015.
Winspear Re-Ups With Harper
The author of the ongoing, bestselling Maisie Dobbs series, Jacqueline Winspear, has inked a new contract with her current publisher, Harper. Winspear signed a three-book, North American rights, deal with Jennifer Barth for two new Maisie Dobbs titles, as well as a stand-alone novel. The stand-alone, which will be Winspear’s first, is called The Care and Management of Lies and is set during WWI; it’s slated for summer 2014, to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the war’s start. There are 10 Maisie Dobbs books in print, and the next one (covered under this contract), The White Lady, is scheduled for 2015. Agent Amy Rennert represented Winspear in the deal.
Pocket Lands Self-Pubbed Star
Lauren McKenna at Pocket Books/Gallery Books signed Kristen Proby to a mid-six-figure, three-book, world rights deal, for a new series called Love Under the Big Sky. Proby self-published the series With Me in Seattle, which S&S called “erotic and emotional”; it has landed on the USA Today bestseller list. Under this contract, Proby will continue to separately write (and self-publish) With Me in Seattle, while Pocket will launch her new series with the book Loving Cara (to be released in digital and mass market formats), in February 2014. In Loving Cara, a ruggedly handsome Montana rancher, after becoming a sudden surrogate parent to his 12-year-old nephew, is reintroduced to a former flame when she comes to tutor the boy. Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary brokered the deal for Proby, and Pocket/Gallery’s Abby Zidle will be editing the new series.
