Alborozo Gets Six Figs At Holt
After a bidding war, author/illustrator Gabriel Alborozo signed a three-book, six-figure, world English rights deal with Sally Doherty at Henry Holt. The deal was brokered by Kirsten Hall for the Bright Agency, and the first title is a picture book called Goodbye, Firefly that Hall is also coauthoring. Goodbye, Firefly, Hall said, is scheduled for spring 2015 and “illuminates the importance of being able to let things go.” The second and third books in the deal are currently untitled. (Hall recently left the Bright Agency to form her own company, Catbird Productions, but closed this deal before she left.)
Macmillan Nabs Fan Fic Phenom
Rose Hilliard at St. Martin’s Press took world English rights (working in conjunction with Macmillan U.K. and Macmillan Australia) in a three-book deal to an adult series that began as Twilight fan fiction. The original work, called the Diva Diaries, was, according to SMP, downloaded over two million times. The author, Leisa Rayven (who posted the original story as KiyaRayven), is Australian and took the work offline in September 2013. She is now represented by Christina Hogrebe at the Jane Rotrosen Agency, and extensively revised the work before selling it; the first book is now called Bad Romeo, and the second Broken Juliet. The series is told in alternating perspectives, with each book narrated by one member of a Hollywood couple: she’s the “it girl” and he’s a “bad boy actor.” The duo’s relationship dates back to high school, when they met playing the leads in their class production of Romeo & Juliet. Bad Romeo has BDSM elements, but, explained Hilliard, features a “sweeter” love story than the one in that other erotic series that began as Twilight fan fiction (ahem, Fifty Shades of Grey); Bad Romeo is scheduled for early 2015.
Godwin Talks Book Life For Bloomsbury
Three-time National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin sold a memoir called Publishing to Nancy Miller at Bloomsbury. Miller took world English rights from Moses Cardona at John Hawkins & Associates. Godwin, who’s been publishing fiction since the 1970s and whose novels include Evensong (1999) and A Mother and Two Daughters (1982, and one of her NBA nominees), explores what Bloomsbury called “the writing life” in this book. Frances Halsband, an architect who illustrated Godwin’s previous book, Evenings at Five, is also illustrating this work.
Screenwriter Debuts At Kensington
At Kensington, Gary Goldstein took world rights to a new trilogy by screenwriter Brandon Boyce. Doug Grad at Doug Grad Literary represented the author in the three-book deal. The series, a western, features a half-breed Navajo named Harlan Two-Trees; in the first book, Boyce’s debut, Here by the Bloods, Two-Trees is seeking justice for his surrogate father, the former town sheriff, who was murdered. Boyce’s produced screenplays include Apt Pupil and Wicker Park.
Brambles Goes ‘Dark’ For Switch
For Capstone’s new YA imprint, Switch Press, Donald Lemke bought world English rights to Lindsay Brambles’s debut YA novel, Becoming Darkness. Kelly Sonnack at Andrea Brown Literary represented the author, and the book is scheduled for spring 2015. The book, Sonnack said, is set in a parallel world where “things took a different turn in WWII” and Hitler is still alive and in power.
