Razorbill Looks in Khorana’s ‘Mirror’
In a two-book deal at auction, Razorbill’s Jessica Almon acquired North American rights to Aditi Khorana’s debut YA novel, Mirror in the Sky. The book follows Tara, a 16-year-old high school junior at a Connecticut private school, whose life is transformed by the discovery of an alternate Earth. Jenny Bent, who has an eponymous shingle, brokered the deal; she pitched the book, Razorbill said, as Prep meets The Age of Miracles. Khorana, who has a B.A. from Brown University and a graduate degree from USC, has worked as a journalist and, more recently, as a marketing consultant for Hollywood studios including Fox and Sony. The deal includes a second, currently untitled YA novel.

Runkle Finds ‘Mercy’ at Avery
Nathan Runkle, founder of the nonprofit animal rights group Mercy for Animals, sold a book about factory farming, also called Mercy for Animals, to Avery Books. Megan Newman took North American rights to the title from Peter McGuigan at Foundry Literary + Media. Avery said Runkle, who will be writing with Gene Stone, will explore “the practical, economic, and sociological history of factory farming” to expose its “impact on both humans and the environment.”

McDonnell Takes Pic Book to LBYR
Patrick McDonnell, creator of the comic strip Mutts, sold world rights to a picture book called Shine! to executive v-p and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Megan Tingley. McDonnell’s strip, which debuted in 1994, now appears in more than 700 newspapers. This book, which marks his first picture book that he is not illustrating, will be illustrated by Naoko Stoop (Red Knit Cap Girl). Shine! is about a starfish that dreams of being a different kind of star—one in the sky, as opposed to the ocean. McDonnell was represented by Henry Dunow at Carlson & Lerner, and Stoop was represented by Brenda Bowen at Sanford J. Greenburger.

Orbit Has ‘Hope’ for Skovron
In a three-book world English rights deal, Devi Pillai at Orbit preempted Jon Skovron’s Empire of Storms trilogy. Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management handled the sale, done jointly with Anna Jackson at Orbit UK. The first book in the epic fantasy series, Hope and Red, follows a warrior named Hope who is set on avenging the massacre of her village, and a thief named Red who is focused on saving the slum where he grew up. Orbit said the book was pitched as “a swashbuckling adventure” and compared it to Brent Weeks’s Night Angel Trilogy and Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora. Skovron is the author of various YA novels, including Misfit and Man Made Boy.

Kang Takes ‘Acts’ to Hogarth
For Crown’s Hogarth imprint, Sarah Bedingfield took North American rights to Han Kang’s new novel, Human Acts. Agent Barbara Zitwer, who has an eponymous shingle, handled the sale for the South Korean writer. Kang’s debut novel, The Vegetarian, has already been acquired by Hogarth and is set to be released by the imprint in 2016. Human Acts, like The Vegetarian, is being translated by Deborah Smith. The novel is set in 1980 in the South Korean city of Gwangju and follows two young friends who get caught up in the violent showdown, then massacre, that occurred after protesting students were beaten and fired on by the police. (It’s been estimated that some 600 people died in the real-life event.) The book, Zitwer said, was a bestselling novel last year in Korea, where it was published by Changbi.

Santoro Delivers the Facts to Perigee
YouTube star Matthew Santoro, who shares outlandish facts with viewers in his popular videos, has struck a global publishing deal to write a book called Mind=Blown featuring the kind of tidbits he shares online. Marc Gerald at the Agency Group brokered the deal for Santoro, selling the book jointly to Marian Lizzi at Perigee, as well as to editors at Penguin Canada and Viking UK. Perigee said Santoro’s videos have drawn nearly 400 million views, and the book, which is slated for 2016, will collect “weird, hilarious, and crazy facts about the world around us.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Hogarth editor Sarah Bedingfield.