LBYR Gets Ghost Buster-y
Agent Jody Hotchkiss, of Hotchkiss and Associates, brokered a deal for Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, the “ghost busters” on the SyFy channel's reality show Ghost Hunters, to do a middle grade children's series at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Hotchkiss, who worked on the proposal with packager Jane Stine of Parachute Properties, sold world rights to two hardcovers to LBYR's Erin Stein. The first book in the tentatively titled Ghost Hunt series is slated for Halloween 2010.
Orbit Signs Robinson
Orbit's Tim Holman inked Kim Stanley Robinson to a world English rights, three-book deal, with the first title in the agreement, 2312, slated to drop in 2012. Holman, v-p and publisher of the Hachette sci-fi/fantasy imprint, brokered the deal with agent Ralph Vicinanza. Robinson, who's won various genre awards including the Hugo and the Nebula, is best known for his Mars trilogy, published in the 1990s by Bantam's Spectra imprint. In the new novel, set 300 years in the future, human beings have fled Earth in favor of new homes within the solar system.
Two Dollar Radio Nabs Two
Eric Obenauf, of the Granville, Ohio, indie Two Dollar Radio, took North American rights to Xiaoda Xiao's The Visiting Suit and Other Tales. Xiao, who fictionalizes his own experiences as a prisoner in one of Mao Zedong's labor camps in the short story collection, wrote the The Cave Man (also published by TDR); Phyllis Westberg at Harold Ober brokered the deal, and Suit is slated for October 2010. Obenauf also bought world English rights to Grace Krilanovich's debut novel, The Orange Eats Creeps, about, per the house, a “slutty teenage hobo vampire junkie” wandering the Pacific Northwest looking for her foster sister. Krilanovich was not rep'd by an agent in the deal, and TDR is planning a February 2011 publication.
Norton Wins German Holocaust Book
Norton's Tom Mayer bought U.S. rights, at auction, to Johanna Adorján's memoir, An Exclusive Love, about unraveling the life stories of her grandparents, Hungarian Holocaust survivors who, together, killed themselves in 1991. Adorján is a social critic in Germany, and the book is set to be translated by Anthea Bell. David Forrer and Kim Witherspoon at InkWell handled the deal. (Knopf Canada took Canadian rights in a deal brokered by Michael Heyward at Text Publishing.)
SMP Re-Signs Leigh
In a major seven-figure-deal, St. Martin's Press has signed bestselling romance/mystery writer Lora Leigh to a world rights, multibook deal. Robin Rue at Writers House orchestrated the deal with SMP senior editor Monique Patterson, and the first book is set to bow in 2011. Leigh's currently published by SMP, and her latest bestseller is Heat Seeker.
Briefs
Billy Kingsland of Kuhn Projects sold North American rights to Jesse Ball's A Ladder of Rain and the Roof Beyond to Jenny Jackson at Vintage. Ball's third novel follows a father-daughter living in a nameless town where music has been outlawed. Kingsland said Ball is purposely vague about setting and the work could be taking place today, or, possibly, 100 years ago. A spring 2011 publication is planned.
Note to Our Readers: Our Deals coverage has officially hit Twitter. You can follow columnist Rachel Deahl at @DeahlsDeals, where she'll be tweeting about all manner of literary transactions, ruminations, minutiae, etc. (And yes, her last name is pronounced the same way. Which means, no, you're not the first person who noticed.)
