It Books Gets Design-y with Spade
In a deal that's as much creative partnership as acquisition, Carrie Kania and Cal Morgan, of Harper's newly launched It Books imprint, have bought world rights to six titles from the brand consultants/gallery owners, Partners & Spade. Ira Silverberg, of Sterling Lord, brokered the deal. (Partners & Spade is Andy Spade, husband to Kate and former CEO of her eponymous handbag company, and Anthony Sperduti; the duo, among other things, owns a downtown Manhattan gallery that sells tchotchkes and art). The titles, all to be illustrated, will range from photography books to fashion guides; one title, tentatively called Bags in Trees, will feature photos of just that, handbags in trees. The book deal is also ushering in a larger partnership through which Partners & Spade will offer creative input on various It Books (and Harper Perennial) titles, potentially collaborating on anything from book concepts to jacket designs to promotional efforts.
A Bestseller's Son
Kensington has nabbed world English rights to the debut thriller Delirious by Daniel James Palmer, son of bestselling author Michael Palmer. Kensington editor-in-chief John Scognamiglio acquired the title, part of a three-book deal for hardcover and paperback rights, from Meg Ruley at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. Delirious, about an inventor who becomes a suspect in a murder case and is forced to release his schizophrenic brother to help him clear his name, is scheduled for March 2011.
Gotham's Holy Roller
Lauren Marino at Gotham won North American rights, at auction, to Donna Johnson's memoir about growing up evangelical, Holy Ghost Girl: Scenes from the Apocalypse. Dan Conaway at Writers House sold the book, which won the top prize at the Mayborn Creative Nonfiction Conference in 2007 and chronicles Johnson's childhood—her mother was the organist for the globe-trotting evangelical preacher David Terrell—as a member of one of the biggest evangelical ministries of the '60s and '70s. Terrell, who predated media evangelists like Jerry Falwell, was, in Conaway's wording, the last of the “great sawdust trail evangelists.”
Da Capo's Pigeon Adds Two Bloggers
Executive editor at Da Capo Press, Bob Pigeon, has just nabbed two books for his list. The first, tentatively titled The History of Our Future by Wired.com editor Alexis Madrigal (who also oversees the popular science blog Wired Science), went for six figures at auction. David Fugate of LaunchBooks Literary handled the deal, for world rights, and Da Capo plans to publish the book, about America's long history of innovation in solar, wind and other green technologies in fall 2010. Pigeon also acquired North American rights to Matthew Gallagher's Iraq War memoir, Kaboom, based on his blog of the same name, which the army pulled offline last year, amid some controversy; William Clark of William Clark Associates brokered the deal and pub is currently set for May 2010.
And Twins
Natalie Kaire at Grand Central acquired, at auction, world rights to Psychic Intelligence by Linda and Terry Jamison, aka the Psychic Twins. Eileen Cope at Trident Media Group brokered the deal, which was for mid-six-figures. The Twins, who regularly make radio and TV appearances—and are in talks with producers about their own TV show—came to prominence after they predicted, on a radio show in 1999, some of the events of September 11. Their book purports to offer readers a way to develop their own psychic abilities and thereby find wealth, love and an overarching purpose in life.
