Detweiler Signs with Holiday
Bestselling YA author Katelyn Detweiler sold North American rights to a new, currently untitled novel to Margaret Ferguson for her eponymous imprint at Holiday House. Detweiler, who published her last two novels—Immaculate and Transcendent—with Viking Children’s Books, follows a 17-year-old bestselling author in the new work. Agent Jill Grinberg, who has an eponymous shingle and represented Detweiler, said the young heroine “seems to have it all, but she is harboring a dark secret that threatens to unravel everything.” The book is slated for a spring 2019 release.
Rorke Revs His Car for Harper
Sara Nelson at Harper Perennial took world rights to Robert Rorke’s debut novel, Car Trouble. Rorke, who was represented by Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency, is a TV columnist for the New York Post. The book, set for fall 2018, takes place in Brooklyn during the 1970s and documents a son’s attempt to keep his family together as his father’s alcoholism threatens to consume the clan. Nelson said the story “is told as a flashback and structured by the nicknames of the vintage cars the father buys at NYPD auctions, including the Blue Max, the Green Hornet, the Black Beauty, and the Pink Panther.”
Brinks Unleashes ‘Beasts’ at Running Press
Cindy De La Hoz at Running Press nabbed world English rights to a coffee table book by Melissa Brinks called The Compendium of Magical Beasts. The book, which will be illustrated by Lily Seika Jones, explores, RP said, “the anatomy of magical creatures” through the “controversial” findings of a fictional cryptozoologist named Veronica Wigberht-Blackwater. Adria Goetz at Martin Literary & Media Management brokered the deal for the title, which is slated for a fall 2018 publication.
Sander’s Universe Guide Goes to Penguin
Meg Leder at Penguin Books took North American rights to Ella Frances Sander’s An Illustrated Guide to the Universe in a deal brokered by Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. Illustrator and author Sander (Lost in Translation) delivers in the book what the Penguin Random House imprint described as “a whimsical, illustrated look at the principles, laws, and wonders that rule both our universe and daily lives.”
‘Frankenstein’ Reimagining to Delacorte
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, a revamped YA take on Mary Shelley’s gothic 1818 horror novel, was acquired by Beverly Horowitz and Wendy Loggia at Delacorte Press. Author Kiersten White, who was represented by Michelle Wolfson at Wolfson Literary Agency, has written the work from the point of view of the character Elizabeth, who, the publisher said, “is taken in by the Frankenstein family to be a companion for their son, the volatile and mysterious Victor.” The book is set for a fall 2018 release, timed to the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein’s publication.
Khorram’s ‘Darius’ Goes to Dial
In a six-figure preempt, Dana Chidiac at Dial bought world rights to Adib Khorram’s YA novel Darius the Great Is Not Okay. The debut follows a 15-year-old boy, who, the publisher said, is a “tea-obsessed, clinically depressed, half-Iranian Star Trek nerd whose sense of self is transformed by his first trip to Iran.” Khorram, who is Iranian-American, was represented by Molly O’Neill at Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. The book is set for a fall 2018 publication.
Grove Atlantic Nabs Louvre Book
George Gibson and Joan Bingham at Grove Atlantic acquired world English rights to James Gardner’s The Louvre: A History. The book, according to William Clark at William Clark Associates, who represented Gardner, is “the first book-length general history” of the famed Parisian museum. Clark said the title, set for spring 2019, will delve into the varied history of the institution, which began as a medieval fortress, then became a palace before being turned into a museum in 1793. Gardner (Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City) is the former architecture critic for the New York Observer.
Napolitano Sells ‘Safe’
Former governor of Arizona and secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano sold world rights to How Safe Are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11. Colleen Lawrie and Peter Osnos at Public-
Affairs bought the book, which is written with Karen Breslau and will, the publisher said, reflect on “the evolution and effectiveness of homeland security in the United States since 9/11,” including “what has been achieved, what remains to be done, and the consequences for American freedom and civil liberties.” Napolitano, currently president of the University of California, was represented by Peter Bernstein and Amy Bernstein at Bernstein Literary Agency.
Kensington Strikes Agreement with Sullivan
In what it’s calling a “hybrid publishing partnership,” Kensington has struck an agreement with bestselling fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan. Through the deal, which Kensington’s Martin Biro negotiated with literary agent Joshua Bilmes at Jabberwocky, the publisher gets North American print rights to the next three books in Sullivan’s The Legends of the First Empire series. (The first two books in the series have been published by Del Rey, and the third, Age of War, is coming in 2018.) Beginning in 2019, with the release of Age of Legends, Kensington will publish the hardcover editions of the new titles in the series through its Rebel Base Select imprint. Sullivan will simultaneously self-publish the e-book editions of the titles under his own brand. (Sullivan has both self-published and traditionally published his work.) Kensington said the first two books in the Legends series have hit “multiple bestseller lists.”
Briefs
Michael Hebb, an activist and “underground restaurateur” (so known because of the celebrated underground dinners he’s hosted around the world), sold Let’s Talk About Death to Renee Sedliar at Da Capo. The book, which Gail Ross at the Ross Yoon Agency represented, is a self-help title that Da Capo said will bring Hebb’s “Death over Dinner organization and website... to book form in a guide to help anyone have the most challenging, yet most essential, and often most fulfilling, conversations about death.”
Angel Payne struck a five-book world rights deal with Waterhouse Press’s Bolt imprint for a collection of superhero novellas. The first title under the deal will appear in June 2018. Waterhouse CEO David Grishman struck the agreement directly with Payne (who did not use an agent), and also acquired 10 full-length novels. The first three novels in the Honor Bound series will be released in December.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of author Adib Khorram. Additionally, Ella Frances Sander’s An Illustrated Guide to the Universe was sold to Penguin Books, not Viking.
