The shuffling of the A-list culinary TV personalities continues. After word broke yesterday that Rachael Ray was leaving Random House's Clarkson Potter division for Simon & Schuster's Atria branch, Random House swiped back by poaching Paula Deen. Deen, who had been at S&S, signed a multi-platform deal with Ballantine to do two cookbooks and three original e-books. The cookbooks, slated for fall 2013 and fall 2014, will be published in multiple formats; the e-books, which will release between fall 2013 and fall 2014, will all be about seasonal entertaining.
Agent Janis Donnaud, working with Barry Weiner at Artists Agency, brokered the North American rights deal with executive editor of Ballantine, Pamela Cannon. The deal also marks a reunion, since Cannon edited Deen's first two cookbooks in the late '90s, The Lady & Sons and The Lady & Sons, Too!; Cannon signed Deen after eating in her Savannah, Ga., restaurant, The Lady & Sons.
Deen, who is now a fixture on the Food Network, where she stars in two shows, also has a bimonthly magazine, Cooking With Paula Deen, which RH said has a circulation of over 1 million.
