Susan Piver scored for Putnam/Tarcher with a book called The Hard Questions urging careful reflection before marriage. Now her Hard Questions concept has ballooned into a four-book series, which Bill Shinker at Penguin's new Gotham imprint signed in a major deal for North American, first serial and audio with Richard Pine. Shinker describes Piver's concept, in which readers are encouraged to come up with their own answers to her questions, as an innovative, interactive approach to self-help. The series, of which the first will be The Hard Questions for an Authentic Life, out next January, will be edited by Lauren Marino.