Gotham Buys a 'Hug'

Gotham's William Shinker acquired world rights to a new book by Hug Your Customers and Hug Your People author Jack Mitchell. Mitchell, CEO and chairman of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs, with two popular clothing stores, Mitchells and Richards, in Westport and Greenwich, Conn., delivered his message about succeeding in business through above-and-beyond customer service in the previous Hug titles, both published by Hyperion. Those books, per Gotham, have sold, combined, more than 200,000 copies in North America. In his new title, Hugging Your Family Business, to be co-written with Sonny Kleinfeld, Mitchell shares “time-honored secrets and strategies” for making family (and small) businesses succeed. Margaret McBride of Margaret McBride Literary brokered the deal and Gotham is aiming for a summer 2011 pub.

Married to the (Irish) Mob

Bob Diforio of D4EO Literary has sold a true-crime book he described as “a real-life Departed” by former FBI supervisor Robert Fitzpatrick. Iris Blasi at Sterling Publishing's Union Square Press imprint took North American rights to the book, called Betrayal, in which Fitzpatrick chronicles his infiltration of James “Whitey” Bulger's Boston mafia in the 1980s. Fitzpatrick, who discovered there were lawmen entrenched in Bulger's crew, blew the whistle on the corruption and wound up being scapegoated and retired in disgrace. He was later vindicated by a series of 2006 trials in which the FBI was slapped with numerous multimillion-dollar judgments.

Doubleday Preempts Second Stuart

Alison Callahan at Doubleday nabbed Julia Stuart's sophomore novel, The Raincatcher, with a preempt for North American rights. (Stuart's first novel, The Matchmaker of Perigord, was published as a paperback original by HarperCollins.) Gráinne Fox of Fletcher & Company did the deal. In the book, a contemporary couple living in the Tower of London deal with the odd characters and tasks that come with making a home in a tourist attraction. Fox said the title of the book, which is tentative, refers to a habit of the husband, Balthazar Jones—he collects rain to offset his inability to shed tears over the death of his child. Doubleday plans to publish in fall 2010.

Glusman Goes 'Swimming'

Barney Karpfinger negotiated a two-book deal for debut novelist Sara J. Henry with Harmony/Shaye Areheart's John Glusman. Glusman took world rights to the works, the first of which, a suspense novel about a boy found in the chilly waters of Lake Champlain, is called Learning to Swim. Swim, which will be published under the Shaye Areheart Books imprint, is slated for fall 2010.

Twelve Finds 'Fortune'

Jonathan Karp at Twelve signed a nonfiction book by New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos about Westerners flocking to China in search of opportunity and adventure. Karp took world rights to The Fortune Seekers from Jennifer Joel at ICM. Osnos, who graduated from Harvard in 1998 and has lived in China since 2005, is no stranger to his topic—he was the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune (where he contributed to a series that won a Pulitzer) and is currently the New Yorker's China correspondent.

Correction

Wiley acquired world English rights to Byron James's memoir, not world rights, as stated in last week's column. Additionally, Heather Brewer's YA vampire series was incorrectly called The Chronicles of Vladimir Rod; the correct title is The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod.