True Crime Preempt
Within 48 hours of submission, Kristin Weber at NAL preempted Joseph Hosey's untitled account of Stacy Peterson's 2007 disappearance; Jason Anthony at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth made the six-figure, world English deal. Chicago Herald News reporter Hosey broke the story of Peterson's disappearance as well as the death of former police sergeant Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio; parallels to the Scott Peterson case, which produced four bestsellers, apparently prompted NAL to move quickly on this. NAL will publish July 2008.
Attention, Please
Marnie Cochran at Ballantine bought North American rights to a new book by Driven to Distraction coauthor Edward M. Hallowell, who with his wife, Sue Hallowell, will write Married to Distraction; Jill Kneerim made the sale. Married describes and helps couples combat what the authors define as a culturally induced attention deficit within modern relationships. Hallowell helped put adult ADD on the map; his wife is a therapist who specializes in marriage counseling.
Strothman Duo
Peter Ginna at Bloomsbury bought world rights to Freedom Riders author Ray Arsenault's The Sound of Freedom via Wendy Strothman. The book is about Marion Anderson's 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, after she had been denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall because of her race.
Elsewhere at the agency, Dan O'Connell sold Daniel Maier-Katkin's Stranger from Abroad: Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger and the Experience of Germans and Jews in the 20th Century to Alane Mason at Norton. Maier-Katkin will examine the relationship between the two icons and what it tells us about their philosophies and their times. Norton has world rights.
Hernandez Takes Two
Sulay Hernandez at Touchstone bought North American rights to It Calls You Back, the follow-up to Luis Rodriguez's gangland memoir, Always Running. In the new book, Rodriguez writes about finding purpose in art while dealing with alcoholism, multiple divorces and the incarceration of his son. Susan Bergholz made the sale.
For Fireside, Hernandez also won an auction for Kyra Sundance's The Dog Rules: The 14 Secrets to Compassionately Shaping a Well-Behaved and Respectful Dog via Andrea Somberg at Harvey Klinger, who sold North American rights. Celebrity dog trainer Sundance and her dog Chalcy are the nation's premier stunt-dog team.
The Briefing
The Jury Master author Robert Dugoni will move to Touchstone for two new David Sloane novels; Trish Lande Grader bought North American rights from Meg Ruley. Projected pub date for the first hardcover is early 2009, with Pocket paperback to follow.... Selena James at Kensington/Dafina has acquired world rights to eight new Drama High books by L. Divine via Brendan Deneen at Objective; the first in this mid-six-figure deal, the seventh in the series, is titled Hustlin' and tentative pub date is February 2009.... Rica Allannic at Clarkson Potter won an auction for the next two cookbooks by Robin Miller, both of which will tie into Miller's Food Network show, Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller. Book one is tentatively slated for summer 2009, and book two for spring 2010; Debra Goldstein at the Creative Culture sold world rights.... Ben Schafer at Da Capo beat two other houses in an auction for Why Does E=mc2? by physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw; George Lucas at Inkwell sold world English rights to this explanation of Einstein's most famous equation. Pub date is spring 2009.
