Daniels Re-ups for Six at HQN
B.J. Daniels signed a six-book world-rights deal for six figures with Harlequin’s HQN imprint. She will be writing a new western romantic suspense series, extending her relationship with the publisher. Lisa Erbach Vance at Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency represented Daniels, brokering the sale with HQN’s Denise Zaza. The first book in the Big Sky Country–set series is slated for early 2017. According to HQN, Daniels, a longtime bestselling author, has written over 70 titles to date.
Newitz Goes ‘Autonomous’ At Tor
Annalee Newitz, cofounder of the science and tech blog IO9 and former editor at Gizmodo, closed a six-figure two-book deal with Liz Gorinsky at Tor. Gorinsky took North American and German rights in the transaction from Laurie Fox at the Linda Chester Literary Agency. Both books will be novels, and the first, Autonomous, is a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in 2144. Fox described Autonomous as a “novel of ideas” about, in part, “the future of property law.” She explained, “In the world of Autonomous, robots are granted an ‘autonomy key’ after 10 years of indentured service,” and that “people can own other people, too.” Newitz, who is now the tech culture editor at Ars Technica, has written three other books, including 2013’s Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction (Doubleday), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Algonquin Kids Get ‘Real’ With Mabry
Krestyna Lypen at Algonquin Young Readers nabbed world rights to The Real Marvelous, Samantha Mabry’s near-future YA novel. Claire Anderson-Wheeler at Regal Hoffmann & Associates represented Mabry (A Fierce and Subtle Poison) in the deal. The book, which is scheduled for fall 2017, is about a young couple working in the agave plantations of the Southwest in a world “plagued by water shortages, injustice, and dark superstition,” Anderson-Wheeler said. When the characters are forced from their home, they wind up moving into a place that may be cursed.
Eisler Plays ‘God’ at Thomas & Mercer
Barry Eisler signed a two-book world-English and German-rights deal with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint. Grace Doyle and Alan Turkus brokered the sale with Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. The first book in the deal, The God’s Eye View, is a thriller about an NSA analyst who becomes the target of two government hackers after she stumbles across a secret program code-named God’s Eye. Rennert said the novel has “the psychological sophistication and literary flair of Graham Greene and John Le Carré,” but is “imbued with the realism wrought by Eisler’s expert knowledge of surveillance, spy craft, and government ops.” The God’s Eye View is set for February 2016.
Bloomsbury Gets ‘Fermented’ with Whitsitt
Tara Whitsitt sold a cookbook/nonfiction title called Fermentation on Wheels to Nancy Miller at Bloomsbury. The book, which the publisher took world rights to and described as “part cookbook and part hero’s quest” grew out of a traveling culinary-research effort that Whitsitt launched in 2013 and has been documenting on a blog with the same name as the book. An activist and food preservationist, Whitsitt has been traveling the country in a converted school bus, teaching food sustainability. The book, Bloomsbury said, will feature 50 recipes and chronicle her 20,000-mile drive back and forth across the U.S., “spreading the gospel of kombucha, kimchi, and kefir.” The book, which Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary sold, is slated for fall 2017.
Briefs
Kent Carroll at Europa Editions took North American rights to The Crossing, Andrew Miller’s Costa Prize–winning novel. Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor brokered the sale for Miller, whose previous novel, Oxygen, was shortlisted for the Man Booker. The Crossing, which was published in the U.K. in August by Sceptre, is Miller’s first book in four years; it’s about a woman who flees western England in the wake of a tragedy and attempts to make a solo sailing trip across the Atlantic.
At Tarcher Perigee, Sara Carder nabbed world English rights to The Reducetarian Solution, an essay collection edited by Brian Kateman. Linda Konner, who has an eponymous shingle, sold the book at auction for Kateman, the 26-year-old president of the Reducetarian Foundation (which promotes educational programs aimed at reducing American society’s consumption of meat). The spring 2017-scheduled book will include vegan and vegetarian recipes while explaining, Konner said, “how the simple act of cutting 10% of meat from one’s diet can transform the life of the reader, animals, and the planet.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article listed the incorrect title of Annalee Newitz's earlier book, Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction.
