Ecco Plays with Cole’s ‘Ragdoll’
In a two-book North American–rights deal, Ecco’s Zack Wagman bought Daniel Cole’s debut novel Ragdoll. The book, which is the first in a planned series, follows a detective who is on the trail of a murderer known as the Ragdoll Killer and is in danger of becoming the Ragdoll’s next victim. Esther Newberg and Zoe Sandler at ICM Partners brokered the sale for Cole. The novel has also sold in the U.K. and 15 other territories. TV rights to the book have been sold to Sid Gentle Films.

Radnor to HarperElixir
Filmmaker and actor Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) sold world rights to a currently untitled book, chronicling his attempt to answer the big questions about spirituality, to HarperElixir. Claudia Riemer Boutote brokered the deal with Jan Miller at Dupree/Miller. The publisher said the book traces “an ongoing quest that takes [Radnor] from his youth in heartland Ohio to the unexpected lessons of celebrity and beyond.”

Smith-Stevens Takes ‘The Australian’ to Dzanc
In a two-book world-rights deal, Emma Smith-Stevens sold a debut novel called The Australian, along with a short story collection called Allies/Strangers, to Guy Intoci at Dzanc Books. Kristyn Keene at ICM Partners, who represented Smith-Stevens, called the novel an “emotionally complex” and “satirical” work about “the evolution of a man known only as ‘the Australian’ as he moves from Melbourne to New York City, fails at outlandish business ventures, marries and becomes a father, and grapples with... questions of identity and masculinity.” The short story collection features 21 stories about power struggles between various pairings, from friends to lovers to siblings. Smith-Stevens has an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Florida and has had her fiction published in, among other publications, Subtropics and Amazon’s Day One.

T. Jefferson Parker Moves To Putnam
Mark Tavani, in his first acquisition for G.P. Putnam’s Sons, did a two-book world-rights deal with T. Jefferson Parker. Parker, a three-time Edgar Award winner who was at St. Martin’s Press, was represented by Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. The first novel in the deal, The Room of White Fire, follows a private investigator hired to catch an Air Force veteran who has escaped a mental institution. Set predominantly in northern California, the book, Putnam said, “is fueled by international events and pits its protagonist against private contractors and CIA agents.”

Avery Takes a “Pivot” with Hayes
Caroline Sutton at Avery Books took world rights to Steven C. Hayes’s Pivot. The book, which is scheduled for spring 2018, is subtitled Psychological Flexibility and the Power of Turning Toward. Hayes, who was represented by Linda Loewenthal at the Loewenthal Company, is a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Nevada and cofounded Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is often used in psychotherapy. The book, Avery said, is based on Hayes’s “paradigm-shifting concept of psychological flexibility and its counterintuitive approach to turning toward, rather than away from, our difficult emotions.” Hayes has written more than 30 books to date; this one is his first with Avery.

HC Children’s Has a “Scream” with Stine
R.L. Stine, working with the Mystery Writers of America, sold a middle grade short story anthology he is editing to David Linker at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Linker took world rights to Scream and Scream Again, and HC plans on publishing the title in summer 2018. The book will feature an original story by Goosebumps creator Stine, along with a dozen other stories by bestselling mystery, horror, and middle grade writers.

Sourcebooks Hops on the Coloring Book Bandwagon
In a deal for four previously self-published books, Anna Michels at Sourcebooks bought world rights to Theo Nicole Lorenz’s Unicorns Are Jerks, Dinosaurs with Jobs, Mer World Problems, and Fat Ladies in Spaaaaace. Beth Campbell at BookEnds Literary represented Lorenz in the deal. Sourcebooks said that to date, the books, which feature comic book–like art, have sold more than 125,000 copies.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the names of Kristyn Keene and Claudia Riemer Boutote were misspelled.