And the Oscar Goes to...
Four days after submission, Brenda Copeland at Hyperion preempted Dr. David Dosa's Rounding with Oscar: Lessons Learned from a Cat on Aging and Dying; Emma Sweeney sold North American rights. Geriatrician Dosa first wrote about Oscar, the hospice cat at a Rhode Island nursing home with an apparent ability to predict when patients are about to die, this summer in the New England Journal of Medicine; the book is about how animals have much to teach us about aging and dying. German rights sold at Frankfurt to Droemer for six figures, and auctions are now ongoing in other territories. Likely pub date is fall 2009.
Health Help
Crown's Heather Jackson bought North American rights to Pretty Healthy: Ditch the Health Police and Take Care of Yourself with Less Guilt and Stress; Lluminari experts Susan Love, M.D., and Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., will collaborate on the book. Lluminari, a consortium of doctors and health providers that includes some of the country's most famous experts on women's health, has been called “America's dream team of doctors” by Oprah. The pair's first book will debunk ridiculously strict health advice and show overbooked, overstretched women of all ages how to be imperfectly—but truly—healthy. Love is the author of Dr. Susan Love's Menopause Book and Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, and Domar is the author of Self-Nurture. Jill Kneerim at Kneerim & Williams made the deal, and pub date is summer 2009.
Rediker Back to Viking
Wendy Wolf and Ellen Garrison at Viking bought historian Marcus Rediker's The Amistad Rebellion via Sandy Dijkstra, who sold North American rights. This account of the slave revolt and ensuing trial will tell the story for the first time from the perspective of the slaves themselves, using reportedly rarely seen material. Viking just published Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History; the new book will pub in fall 2011.
On Parsimony
In his first acquisition since moving to Little, Brown, John Parsley bought North American rights to Lauren Weber's Cheap: The Biography of a Misunderstood Virtue via Rob McQuilkin at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. This history of frugality in America, from Benjamin Franklin to Warren Buffett, makes a case for “ethical thrift,” which shaped the country's foundations and can again offer important suggestions for living well and within our means. Pub is planned for 2010.
Kultgen Again to Harper
In Cal Morgan's first big acquisition since joining Harper Perennial, he and Carrie Kania bought world rights to Chad Kultgen's (The Average American Male) second and third novels in a six-figure deal with Trident's Alex Glass. The first of the two, tentatively titled The Lie, is a sexually explicit journey through the lives of three wealthy undergrads in Dallas; Morgan and Kania bought on a partial manuscript and will publish both books as trade paper originals. No pub dates yet.
Ghost Story
Susan Kamil at Dial just bought Eric Nuzum's Boo: A Ghost Story About Friendship, the Search for Truth, the Downside of Recreational Drug Use, Guilt, Punishment, a Little Girl in a Blue Dress, Finding and Losing True Love, and One Irrational Fear; Jane Dystel sold North American rights. The book will chart the author's masochistic journey of discovery as he confronts his obsession with and abject fear of ghosts. Nuzum's The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula is just out from Thomas Dunne. Tentative pub for Boo is fall 2009.
