Mystery writer Janet Evanovich will now continue her bestselling Stephanie Plum series, launched by S&S (One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Ready) for SMP. The three-book hard/soft deal is rumored to be worth approximately $1.3 million and was negotiated by agent Aaron Priest and SMP editor Jennifer Enderlin.
Agent Mary Evans created buzz for Robert Ferrigno's L.A.-based novel, Heartbreaker, by first nabbing a mid-six-figure film deal from Kopelson Entertainment. Previously published by Putnam, Ferrigno, whose sales have slid since his bestselling The Horse Latitudes, now moves to Knopf. Sonny Mehta reportedly paid mid-six figures for Heartbreaker (to be published in a year) and Ferrigno's next novel.
K.C. McKinnon received a reported seven-figure advance from Doubleday editor-in-chief Pat Mulcahy for her next novel, Candles on Bay Street, a story of a romance in a small town in Maine that's due out in October 1998. McKinnon's first novel (she's written other books under her real name), Dancing at the Harvest Moon, to be published this October, was sold to Doubleday by agent Caron K for five figures, and has become a hot foreign rights/TV/serialization property.
Pocket editorial director Emily Bestler reportedly paid $1 million for hard/soft world rights to Tess Gerritsen's next two medical thrillers (to appear in 1998 and 1999) from Meg Ruley of the Jane Rotrosen Agency. Gerritsen wrote the bestselling Harvest and the upcoming September title Life Support.
