Rights Report: August 25

Joy Peskin at Viking Children’s Books has bought world rights to Beside Me, a YA novel by Isabel Gillies, author of the bestselling memoir Happens Every Day.

Amazon Publishing Signs Ferriss

Amazon Publishing made its first major deal since Larry Kirshbaum was named publisher of the unit, acquiring world rights to bestselling author Timothy Ferriss’ next book, The 4-Hour Chef.

Knopf Lands Two Books from Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Robert Gates, United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011, will publish two books with Alfred A. Knopf; the first book will be a memoir and is tentatively scheduled to be published in 2013; the second book will focus on leadership and is expected to be published the following year.

Licensing Hotline: July 2011

Zondervan Acquires The Beginner's Bible

Zondervan has acquired The Beginner’s Bible from Mission City Press, which first introduced the popular line in 1989.

Bloomsbury Buys Continuum for £20 Million

U.K.-based Bloomsbury Publishing has acquired the academic and professional publisher Continuum for £20.1 million ($32 million at current exchange rates).

Amazon Acquires McBain's Backlist

Amazon has bought the rights to 35 titles in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct series, along with rights to 12 titles in the author's Matthew Hope series. Through the deal Amazon's recently announced mystery and suspense imprint, Thomas & Mercer, will release digital, print and audio versions of the 87th Precinct titles, starting in fall 2011.

Scribner Signs Giffords, Kelly for Memoir

Scribner has signed Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, Navy captain and astronaut Mark Kelly, to a write a joint memoir about their lives together.

Sourcebooks to Publish Memoir by South Korea President

When asked how Chicagoland’s Sourcebooks acquired the world English-language rights to The Uncharted Path by Lee Myung-Bak, the president of South Korea, publisher Dominique Raccah responded, only partially in jest: "It’s about Chicago."

Deals for Connors, 50 Cent & Dave Barry

Making for a relatively busy deal-making weekend, at least by summer publishing standards, three major names have announced new books. Jimmy Connors has signed with HarperCollins to do his autobiography, Dave Barry has agreed to two new books with Putnam and 50 Cent is doing a book on bullying for Razorbill.

Columbia University Press Acquires Wallflower Press

Columbia University Press has acquired the worldwide rights of U.K. publisher Wallflower Press, including nearly 170 backlist titles, and will continue to publish approximately 15 new titles a year under the imprint named Wallflower Press beginning in September 2011 as a wholly owned imprint of Columbia University Press.

Merriam-Webster Partners with Livemocha, Collins

Merriam-Webster is teaming with Livemocha and U.K.-based Collins to publish new lines of foreign language materials for the U.S. market. The most ambitious series is Livemocha Active Courses that features four books and a six month subscription to Livemocha's online courses that lets users connect with over 9 million native speakers and instructors to practice their new language. The series, for Spanish, French, German and Italian, is priced at $49.95.

Fox Chapel Makes Three Purchases

Fox Chapel Publishing has completed a three-company shopping spree adding roughly 300 titles and continuing to broaden its reach in the DIY and hobbyist woodworking market. The largest acquisition was of Design Originals, a publisher of craft, sewing and beading titles. Fox Chapel acquired over 260 backlist titles from the Texas company, including Design Originals Zentangle series. Fox Chapel president and publisher Alan Giagnocavo said Fox Chapel will continue to operate Design Originals as an imprint from its Texas office.

Madoff's Daughter-In-Law Sells Memoir

Stephanie Madoff-Mack, daughter-in-law of Bernie and widow of Bernie's son Mark, sold a memoir to David Rosenthal at Penguin, for his just-launched imprint, Blue Rider Press. The book, which is scheduled for December 2011, will, the publisher promised, be the "first genuine inside account...of one of the great public scandals and private tragedies of our time."

Karp Poaches John Irving From Random House

In a major coup for Jonathan Karp at Simon & Schuster, the publisher has signed John Irving to a two-book deal, poaching the bestselling author from Random House. Karp has been reorganizing the flagship imprint since he took control of it in June, replacing David Rosenthal, and the deal with Irving marks one of his flashiest acquisitions since taking the reins.

HMH Acquires Ghonim's 'Revolution 2.0' In Big Buy

After a book by Wael Ghonim called Revolution 2.0 started much chatter at the London Book Fair, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has announced it is the winning bidder on the title by the former Google executive and unlikely revolutionary. Ghonim, who pitched his story to American and international publishers in 30-minute sessions during LBF, helped mobilize anti-Mubarak protesters in Egypt via his Facebook page. The unorthodox sales approach, spearheaded by Ghonim's agency, Inkwell Management, helped generate buzz for the title and it's rumored that HMH won the book with a bid north of $2 million.

Random House Buys Smashing Ideas

Bertelsmann has acquired the digital media agency Smashing Ideas and will put the newly acquired company under Random House’s digital group headed by Nina von Moltke. Smashing Ideas first came to RH’s attention when the two teamed up to develop two children’s book apps, Wild about Books and Pat the Bunny. More apps are in the pipeline for Little Golden Books titles and a spokesperson said SI "will be encouraged to collaborate with other divisions."

Grand Central to Publish 'Godfather' Prequel

Grand Central Publishing is planning the publication of a prequel to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. The Family Corleone by Ed Falco is based on an unproduced screenplay by Puzo, and is slated for publication in June 2012.

Nolo Acquired by New Media Company Internet Brands

After 40 years as one of the country's premier do-it-yourself legal book publishers and website portals, Nolo Inc., parent company of Nolo Press, located in Berkeley, has been acquired by Internet Brands, a new media company based in El Segundo, Calif., which operates online media, community, and e-commerce websites in vertical markets. Nolo founder Jake Warner confirmed that the $21 million sale to Internet Brands was completed April 29.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 10 Book Deal with Amazon Imprints

In a sign of the growing maturation of its publishing program, Amazon has sold trade paperback rights to 10 titles in its Encore and Crossing imprints to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The first title to be released by HMH will be Oliver Potzsche's The Hangman’s Daughter. The novel was originally published in Germany in 2008 and was one of the first books to be released under the AmazonCrossing imprint in which Amazon publishes U.S. editions of foreign titles. Jeff Belle, v-p, Amazon Publishing, said the deal with HMH will extend the reach of its authors' works.