Thursday 20 February 2020

PW Global Rights newsletters

Here are the latest newsletters:


grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v12-120x.JPGS&S Signs Up Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld sold a new book to Simon & Schuster in a world rights agreement. The currently untitled work, which is the funny man’s first adult title since the 1993 bestseller Seinlanguage, is slated for October 2020. In the book, Seinfeld (who was represented by CAA) will, S&S said, share selections of “his favorite material” organized “decade by decade.” S&S’s Jonathan Karp, who acquired the book, said, “Not only is the book brilliantly crafted and laugh-out-loud funny on every single page, but readers will be able to see Jerry and his comedy evolve through the years.” According to S&S, Seinlanguage has sold more than 2.5 million copies.
37663-v14-120x.JPGMorrow Invests in “Talking” Pooch
In a rumored seven-figure deal following a nine-publisher auction, William Morrow nabbed a memoir by a woman who taught her dog to “talk.” How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger was sold in a North American rights agreement to Mauro DiPreta. Ryan Harbage and Christopher Hermelin at Fischer-Harbage represented Hunger in the agreement, which will see the book released in fall 2020. Subtitled A Speech Therapist’s Groundbreaking Method for Communicating with Dogs, the book chronicles how Hunger taught Stella to communicate with her by pushing buttons on a homemade soundboard, and the impact those lessons had on her and her family. Morrow said Hunger, whose work with Stella has been covered by outlets including CNN and People, taught her dog to “combine up to six words to share stories, feelings, and ask questions.” Morrow added that the book will include “tips for dog owners to try themselves.”
spacer.gif
HC Kids Fires Marantzes’s ‘Laser’
After an auction, HarperCollins’s Clarissa Wong won world rights to the middle grade graphic novel Blake Laser by husband-and-wife author-illustrator team Keith and Larissa Marantz. The book, HC said, is set in the 24th century and follows a 12-year-old inventor who, along with her family, “must stop aliens from stealing the sun’s energy, which would lead to the total destruction of Earth within 48 hours.” Rachel Orr at the Prospect Agency represented both Marantzes in the deal. The book will be released in fall 2022.
spacer.gif
38313-v10-120x.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include a middle grade novel, The Insiders, from Schneider Family Award winner Mark Oshiro (pictured), about a queer boy who discovers a magical closet when fleeing from bullies; the Prison Healer trilogy, a YA fantasy series by bestselling Australian author Lynette Noni, about a girl who has survived against all odds in a harsh prison but must risk her life for a bigger cause; and Harvey and the Collection of Impossible Things, a middle grade novel from Printz Honor author Garret Weyr, in which a cat named Harvey hunts for food in a city where hunger and danger lurk on every corner.

14482-11.GIF
36799-v12-120x.JPGHarper Buys Cummings’s Posthumous Memoir
A memoir by Elijah Cummings, the late Baltimore congressman and chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was bought by Harper. Lisa Sharkey took world rights to We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy from David Black at the David Black Agency. Harper said that in the book, Cummings “details the formative moments in his life that prepared him to hold President Donald Trump accountable for his actions while in office.” Cummings, Harper continued, “weaves together the urgent drama of modern-day politics and the defining stories from his past.” Fight, set for June 2020, was not fully completed by the author before his death in October 2019; his collaborator James Dale and his widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, finished the book.
spacer.gif
36962-v1-120x.JPGLovering’s Truth Lands at SMP
In a six-figure, two-book deal, Carola Lovering (Tell Me Lies) sold Too Good to Be True. Sarah Cantin at St. Martin’s Press acquired the novel, which her publisher called “a seductive story of love, revenge, and obsession, exploring three different sides of a relationship—and three different versions of the truth.” The author was represented by Allison Hunter at Janklow & Nesbit in the world rights agreement.
spacer.gif
39152-v3-120x.JPGLin’s ‘Crimes’ Unfold at Little, Brown
A debut novel by 23-year-old Tom Lin, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, was preempted by Ben George at Little, Brown. Lisa Queen at Queen Literary sold world rights to the novel, which LB said is set 150 years ago in the American West and “follows a Chinese-American assassin hell-bent on revenge as he travels the deserts of Utah, Nevada, and California to be reunited with his wife, who was abducted years earlier.”

14565-26.GIF


email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2020, PWxyz LLC

grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v11-120x.JPGReacher Stays in the Family
Lee Child (pictured), the pen name of James Dover Grant, brought a new coauthor into the fold with his latest contract. The four-book North American rights agreement was brokered by Richard Pine and Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management with Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello; it will see Child writing the next four installments in his bestselling Jack Reacher series with his brother, author Andrew Grant (Too Close to Home). The first book under the agreement, The Sentinel, will be published under the names Lee and Andrew Child, and is set for fall 2020. Random House said the Reacher series has more than 100 million copies in print worldwide.
37663-v13-120x.JPGS&S Welcomes Hoffmann’s ‘Children’
In a high-six-figure deal, Jeff Hoffmann sold his debut novel, Other People’s Children, to Marysue Rucci at Simon & Schuster. Harvey Klinger, who has an eponymous shingle, handled the world rights agreement for Hoffmann; he said that in the novel, “an adoptive couple’s agreement with the teenage biological mother of their infant daughter goes horribly awry, sending everyone on a brutal collision course while uncovering issues of class and trust.” Hoffmann, who formerly worked in technology, has an MFA from Columbia College Chicago.
spacer.gif
27974-v14-120x.JPGGessen Tackles Trump for Riverhead
Journalist and National Book Award–winner Masha Gessen sold a book about the Trump administration to Rebecca Saletan at Riverhead. The North American rights agreement for Surviving Autocracy was brokered by Elyse Cheney at the Cheney Agency. Riverhead said the book is a “galvanizing analysis of the destruction the Trump administration has waged on our institutions, the cultural norms we hoped would save us, and our very sense of identity.” The book, set for a June 2020 release, is expanded from an essay Gessen wrote immediately after Trump’s election, titled “Autocracy: Rules for Survival,” that went viral.
spacer.gif
39151-v2-120x.JPGSebastian’s ‘Shadows’ Fall on Ace
After an auction, Ace’s Anne Sowards won North American rights to the debut adult novel by bestselling YA author Laura Sebastian. Half Sick of Shadows is, Ace said, “a feminist reimagining of the Arthurian legend.” In it, a woman named Elaine of Shalott “rejects the future her visions prophesize and transforms the story of King Arthur we’ve come to know.” John Cusick at Folio Literary Management represented Sebastian, and the book is slated for summer 2021.
spacer.gif
38313-9.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include a debut graphic middle grade novel from Matt Tavares (pictured) (author-illustrator of last season’s bestselling Dasher), inspired by the true story of the Warsaw Community High School girls basketball team from 1976; The Heartbreak Bakery, a new YA novel by Amy Rose Capetta in which agender teen baker Syd deals with first heartbreak by whipping up brownies that break up everyone who eats them; and Hugo Award winner Matt Wallace's debut middle grade novel, called Bump.

14541-4.JPG
36799-v11-120x.JPGNelson Gets Critical at Graywolf
Maggie Nelson, whose bestselling memoir The Argonauts was one of PW’s top 10 best books of 2015, sold two new titles to Graywolf Press. The first, The Myth of Freedom, set for fall 2021, is, the publisher said, “a heady, brilliant, iconoclastic work of criticism.” The second book in the deal is a currently untitled essay collection. Graywolf described the latter as “a series of deep dives into the work of individual artists.” Ethan Nosowsky, editorial director at Graywolf, acquired North American rights from PJ Mark at Janklow & Nesbit.
spacer.gif
36962-v19-120x.JPGDutch WWII Memoir to Scribner
For six figures, Scribner’s Valerie Steiker nabbed North American rights to a WWII memoir by Selma van de Perre, a Dutch resistance fighter and concentration camp survivor. My Name Is Selma was preempted by Steiker after the book sold in a number of foreign rights deals. Released on January 9 in the Netherlands by Thomas Rap, the book has, to date, sold in Germany, Italy, and the U.K. Bernat Fiol at SalmaiaLit, who is handling foreign sales for the title and brokered the agreement with Steiker, said the memoir is currently on the Dutch bestseller list. The 97-year-old author became a journalist after the war and has worked for the BBC and as a foreign correspondent for a Dutch television station. In 1983 she won the Dutch Resistance Commemoration Cross. She lives in London.
spacer.gif
39152-v2-120x.JPGPhotographer Sells ‘Inferno’
Documentary photographer Stuart Palley sold a narrative nonfiction book about California wildfires to Blackstone Publishing. Into the Inferno was sold by Jennifer Chen Tran at Bradford Literary, who said that the book is “about braving harrowing conditions on the front lines of California’s major wildfires” and addresses “how climate change is permanently altering the world.” Vikki Warner took world rights to the title, which Blackstone has slated for fall 2021.
spacer.gif
39253-v1-120x.JPGBallantine Keeps Lefteri’s ‘Songbirds’
Christy Lefteri, author of the 2019 bestseller The Beekeeper of Aleppo, sold a new novel to Andra Miller, her editor at Ballantine. Songbirds, Ballantine said, follows “a Nepali domestic worker living on the island of Cyprus who goes missing.” Her employer tries to unravel the mystery of the disappearance and finds herself “embroiled in the deeper truths of modern slavery.” Lefteri was represented by Marianne Gunn O’Connor, who has an eponymous shingle and sold North American rights in the deal.

14542-16.GIF


email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2020, PWxyz LLC


grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v10-120x.JPG‘Kittycorn’ Pic Book Fetches Seven Figures
For a rumored seven-figure sum, Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham sold a picture book titled Itty Bitty Kittycorn to Abrams. Emma Ledbetter won world English rights to the title, after an auction involving eight houses. Hale and Pham are author-illustrator team behind the bestselling middle grade graphic memoirs Best Friends and Real Friends. Itty Bitty Kittycorn, Abrams said, “is about the importance of being seen and understood, by ourselves and others,” and involves “an adorable fluffy kitten who makes herself a unicorn horn.” Jodi Reamer at Writers House represented Pham in the agreement, while Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties represented Hale. Kittycorn is set for March 2021.
37663-v12-120x.JPGKennedy Clan Book to HMH
For six figures, Bruce Nichols at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt bought Neal Thompson’s nonfiction work The First Kennedys. The book, subtitled An Immigrant Maid, Her Bartender Son, and the Humble Roots of a Dynasty, chronicles the beginnings of the Kennedy family in America. Rob Weisbach at Rob Weisbach Creative Management represented Thompson, explaining that the book begins with the family matriarch—an Irish immigrant named Bridget who arrived in Boston in 1849—and details how “this resilient widow and single mother of four rose from maid to hairdresser to business owner and entrepreneur, providing the Kennedy family its first steps toward legitimacy in America.” The book also offers, Weisbach said, “a resonant rebuttal to current anti-immigrant sentiments.” Thompson is a journalist and author whose previous books include the 2018 memoir Kickflip Boys (Ecco).
spacer.gif
27974-v13-120x.JPGPutnam Takes Bailey’s Birdie
After an auction, Putnam’s Tara Singh Carlson won world rights to Robert Bailey’s novel The Golfer’s Son. Putnam said the book was pitched as It’s a Wonderful Life meets Field of Dreams and follows “one down-and-out husband, father, and golfer whose life is changed by a series of inspirational visits from his best friend and golfing idols.” Bailey, who was represented by Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency, is a trial lawyer and an avid golfer; he’s also the author of the bestselling McMurtrie and Drake legal thrillers. The book was inspired, Putnam added, by a dream trip the author had planned, with his father and brother, to play four famed golf courses. That trip was cut short after the death of Bailey’s father. The novel is slated for a fall 2020 release.
spacer.gif
39151-v1-120x.JPGMarcero’s ‘Comet’ to Roaring Brook
The graphic novel debut Haylee and Comet was nabbed in a six-figure, world rights deal at auction. Jen Besser at Roaring Brook acquired the work, by Deborah Marcero, in a three-book agreement, from Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Rennert said she pitched the early reader title as E.T. meets Narwhal and Jelly, and that, in it, “a girl wishes on a star for a friend, and one falls into her lap, literally.” Marcero, an author-illustrator, is on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and is the author of the just-released picture book In a Jar (Putnam).
spacer.gif
38313-8.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include Anatomy: A Love Story by journalist and author Dana Schwartz (pictured), a gothic love story set against the backdrop of 1830s Edinburgh; The Ravens, which launches a series by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige about two girls in a southern sorority where the sisters are all witches; and Alice's Farm: A Rabbit's Tale, a middle-grade novel by Maryrose Wood, author of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series.

14482-11.GIF
36799-v10-120x.JPGHarper Kids Goes ‘Away’ with Brown
Waka T. Brown sold her middle grade memoir, While I Was Away, to Harper Children’s for six figures. Alyssa Miele bought world rights to the title at auction, in a two-book deal, from Penny Moore and Erin Files at Aevitas Creative Management. Moore said the book was pitched as The Farewell meets Brown Girl Dreaming and follows “the author’s journey as a Japanese American who was sent to live in Japan with a grandmother she never knew and attend public school because her parents feared she was losing her culture.” The book is set for winter 2021.
spacer.gif
36962-v17-120x.JPGDonna Bray Picks Up Dass’s ‘Rhythm’
At auction, Donna Bray bought world English rights to debut author Sarah Dass’s YA novel Where the Rhythm Takes You. Dass, a #PitchWars alumnus who was represented by Wendi Gu at Sanford J. Greenburger, based the book on Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Set in Dass’s native Trinidad and Tobago, the novel follows a young woman named Reyna who, after her mother dies, feels like she’s also lost her best friend, Aiden, when he suddenly moves to the U.S. Gu said that in the book, Aiden returns to Trinidad and Tobago as an international pop star, “but the last thing Reyna wants to do is risk her heart all over again.” Rhythm is set for summer 2021, and a second untitled novel, also part of the deal, is set to follow.
spacer.gif
39152-v1-120x.JPGNorton Makes ‘Music’ with Eyre
John Glusman at Norton bought Makana Eyre’s Unsilenced: The Remarkable Story of the Man Who Saved the Music of the Holocaust at auction. Norton said the book is about a Polish Catholic named Aleksander Kulisiewicz who, as a prisoner at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1940, “befriends an underground Jewish choir director, and saves over 600 songs composed in the camp, many of them by Jews who later perish.” Grace A. Ross at Regal Hoffmann & Associates sold world English rights on the behalf of Eyre, a journalist who covers European politics and has written for such publications as the Guardian, the Nation, and Politico Europe.

14265-12.GIF
International
  • In the U.K., Tinder Press bought a debut novel by Francesca Reece that the publisher, per the Bookseller, is touting as a “tour de force.” The novel, Voyeur, touches on, the Bookseller elaborated, “themes such as privilege in the arts, the male gaze and memory.”
spacer.gif
  • Aftermath, by German journalist Harald Jähner, has been acquired by British publisher Ebury. The book, originally published by Gertje Maass in February 2019, won the Leipzig Book Fair nonfiction prize. According to Ebury, via the Bookseller, the title is “the first history of Germany’s national mentality in the immediate postwar years.” To date, it has spent 26 weeks on the bestseller list of the German news magazine Der Spiegel.


Page to Screen
  • Paradise Found by Bill Plaschke (which was acquired last year by William Morrow) has been optioned by 101 Studios with The Rookie producer Mark Ciardi attached. The book follows the high school football team from the town of Paradise, Calif., which was ravaged by the Camp Fire in 2018. Susan Canavan and Ashley Lopez at Waxman Literary Agency brokered the deal on behalf of Plaschke.
spacer.gif
  • Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, with Occasional Music (1994) has been optioned by Legendary Television, according to Deadline. Chernobyl director Johan Renck is attached to helm the planned miniseries.

email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2020, PWxyz LLC

grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v8-120x.JPGMIT Gets ‘Exquisite’ with Harding
For the MIT Press, Bob Prior bought world rights to Sian Harding’s debut, The Exquisite Machine. The nonfiction book from the professor at Imperial College London is, the press said, about “the workings of the human heart.” Harding said the book explores the “revolution going on in our understanding of the heart” and gets into “the perfection of its design and the way it fights for your survival.” Jaime Marshall at J.P. Marshall Literary Agency represented Harding, calling her “an established world authority in cardiac research.”
37663-v10-120x.JPGSimon’s ‘Sea’ Sails to CRP
Nelson Simon sold Into the Sea, a first-person survival story, to Jerry Pohlen at Chicago Review Press. The world rights agreement was brokered by Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. The book, slated for fall 2021, is about a sailing trip the author took in October 1991. What was intended as a relaxing getaway turned into a fight for survival when Simon’s ship sailed into the path of Hurricane Grace. Describing the book, Glick said it is both “a gripping story of survival and an exploration of the choices we make and where those choices land us.”
spacer.gif
27974-v11-120x.JPGPinkney Takes ‘Loretta’ to LB
For Little, Brown, Alvina Ling took world rights to Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It. The middle grade title by the Scholastic editor (and picture book author) is, LB said, is about “three children as they navigate the dramatic events that lead to African American voting rights.” The book will be illustrated by Pinkney’s frequent collaborator and husband, Brian Pinkney. Rebecca Sherman at Writers House brokered the agreement for the book, which is slated for fall 2020.
spacer.gif
38737-v2-120x.JPGJune’s ‘Jay’ Draws HarperTeen
After an auction, HarperTeen’s Megan Ilnitzki won Jason June’s Jay’s Gay Agenda. The world English rights, two-book agreement was brokered by Brent Taylor at Triada US. Taylor said the debut YA novel “follows the titular character after he moves to Seattle from his rural high school, introducing him to other queer teens for the first time, and allowing him to finally cross items off his gay romance to-do list.” The novel is scheduled for summer 2021.
spacer.gif
38313-6.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include Arnée Flores's (pictured) debut novel, The Firebird Song, a middle-grade fantasy that follows a 12-year-old bargeboy and a lost princess on a dangerous quest to unravel clues left by the Firebird Queen; Sarah and the Big Wave, a picture book by Bonnie Tsui and Sophie Diao about one of the first female big-wave surfers; and two titles in the new Stepping Stones line of Graphic Chapter Books, written by Vikram Madan and illustrated by Nicola Slater.

14459-11.JPG
36799-v8-120x.JPGNorth’s Graphic YA to Yellow Jacket
For Bonnier’s middle grade imprint Yellow Jacket, Rachel Gluckstern nabbed world English rights to Ari North’s Always Human. The graphic novel, being published in partnership with GLAAD, is, the publisher said, “about the developing relationship between two young women in a near-future, soft sci-fi setting.” North, a webcomic artist, the publisher noted, adds “an extraordinary color palette” to the work, which is slated for summer 2020. Maria Vicente, at P.S. Literary Agency, represented North.
spacer.gif
36962-v15-120x.JPGGonzales’s ‘Ex-Girlfriend’ Cozies Up to Wednesday Books
Sophie Gonzales sold a YA novel titled The Ex-Girlfriend Getter-Backer Experiment to Sylvan Creekmore at Wednesday Books. Moe Ferrara at BookEnds Literary brokered the world rights deal. According to the publisher, the novel follows “a bisexual girl who gives out anonymous love advice at her high school.” When she’s blackmailed by a popular guy in her class “into helping him get his ex-girlfriend back... the unintended consequences of her advice end up affecting everyone, including herself.” The publisher added that the book, slated for spring 2021, was pitched as The DUFF meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

14414-21.GIF


email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2020, PWxyz LLC

grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v7-120x.JPGScribner Invests In Anam's 'Startup'
After Tahmima Anam’s The Startup Wife sold to Canongate for six figures, Scribner nabbed North American rights to the novel. Nan Graham and Kara Watson acquired from Canongate, after Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency sold world rights (excluding India) to the U.K. house. Scribner described the title as “a sharp, satirical look at marriage, work, and female friendship in the age of peak technology.” In it, two high school sweethearts “build an algorithm to replace religion” and wind up running one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. When the platform grows, “their marriage is tested, and the wife finds herself increasingly in her husband’s shadow.” The publisher added that, with the book, Anam, who has written three novels and won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, is taking her work in “an ambitious new direction.” The Startup Wife is slated for summer 2021.
37663-v9-120x.JPGQuart Gets ‘Bootstrapped’ at Ecco
At Ecco, Denise Oswald acquired Alissa Quart’s Bootstrapped for six figures. The North American rights agreement was brokered by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management. She said the book follows up on Squeezed, Quart’s 2018 book from Ecco. Grinberg added that while interviewing people for that book, Quart “realized there was an underlying ideology of bootstrapping independence at the root of the middle class suffering.” The new book, the agent continued, “will look at how this deeply ingrained ideal of American self-reliance and do-it-yourself grit has helped to both mask and perpetuate the wealth gap in this country, and what we can do to address it.” Quart, who contributes regularly to the New York Times and other outlets, cofounded the Hardship Reporting Project with Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich.
spacer.gif
27974-v10-120x.JPGHanover Scoops Banville’s ‘Snow’
John Banville sold a new crime novel, Snow, along with a second untitled novel, to Hanover Square Press. John Glynn took North American rights from Andrew Wylie at the Wylie Agency, with the book slated for October 2020 (publishing simultaneously with the U.K. edition from Faber). Set in 1957, Snow will be the first crime novel that the Booker winner has published under his own name, after he wrote a series of crime books under the nom de plume Benjamin Black. Introducing a new sleuth—Det. Insp. St. John Strafford—the novel, Hanover Square said, follows “an aristocratic family whose secrets resurface when a priest is found murdered in their home.”
spacer.gif
38737-v1-120x.JPGLambda Fellow’s Debut Lands at Knopf
For Knopf, Caitlyn Landuyt bought Lambda Literary fellow Eric Nguyen’s debut novel, A History of Lost Things. Set in a New Orleans housing project, the book, Knopf said, “follows a Vietnamese refugee mother and her two sons, one tempted by gangs and the other embracing his gay identity, as they reckon with their past losses and grapple with creating a new home.” Nguyen, represented by Julie Stevenson at Massie & McQuilkin, is a contributing writer for the blog DiaCritics.org, which focuses on work by artists and writers from the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diaspora. Lost Things is tentatively set for spring 2021.
spacer.gif
38313-v4-120x.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include Sam Subity's (pictured) middle-grade contemporary fantasy debut, Vale of Secrets, pitched as a modern retelling of the Beowulf epic; Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis's YA duology, The Initial Insult and The Last Laugh, which blends retellings of Edgar Allan Poe stories in a contemporary Appalachian Ohio setting; and RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison, a picture book honoring the singer’s roots, spirituality, influences, leadership, and cultural impact.

14389-3.GIF
36799-v7-120x.JPGGratton Takes a ‘Shine’ to McElderry
From an exclusive submission, Karen Wojtyla at Simon & Schuster’s Margaret K. McElderry Books imprint nabbed world English rights to Tessa Gratton’s YA novel Night Shine. Laura Rennert at Andrea Brown Literary represented the author, saying she pitched the book as “a dark, queer Howl’s Moving Castle.” In it, she explained, after a crown prince is kidnapped, an orphan named Nothing “sets out to rescue him, and discovers all magic is a bargain.” Gratton, who’s written adult science fiction and fantasy novels as well as YA ones, worked as the lead writer for Serial Box Publishing’s project Tremontaine.
spacer.gif
36962-v14-120x.JPGScreenwriter’s Memoir Goes to Crown
Screenwriter Guinevere Turner’s debut memoir, a coming-of-age story, sold at auction to Crown’s Gillian Blake. Bill Clegg at the Clegg Agency represented the author (whose credits include the screenplay for American Psycho and various episodes of The L Word), selling North American rights. The book, Crown said, expands on a New Yorker essay by Turner, published in May, titled “My Childhood in a Cult.” In it, she describes growing up during the 1970s within an isolationist group known as the Lyman Family. The publisher elaborated that the group “kept her separated from her mother and younger sister,” and in the book, she details “her exile at age 11 into a seismically abusive home, from which she narrowly escaped at age 16.”
spacer.gif
38738-v1-120x.JPGChokshi Inks Audio-Only Deal at Audible
Bestselling author Roshani Chokshi (A Crown of Wishes) sold a YA novella to Audible Originals. Jessica Almon Galland took audio-only rights to the title from Thao Le at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Audible said the book is “a humorous twist on fairy tales” and follows “a married couple who was once madly in love, but had sacrificed their feelings to an angered sorceress in order to save each other’s life.”
Behind the Deal
38739-v1-120x.JPGJust before Labor Day weekend in 2018, Scholastic editorial director David Levithan placed a newly published YA book he had been given during a trip to Brazil in the hands of fellow Scholastic editor Orlando Dos Reis. That weekend, Dos Reis started reading Where We Go from Here, the debut novel by Brazilian writer Lucas Rocha. From the beginning, Dos Reis was hooked. “I read the first line and thought, ‘Dammit, this is going to be good,’ ” said Dos Reis, who was born in Brazil and speaks Portuguese. By the time Scholastic’s offices opened on Tuesday morning, Dos Reis—who had never translated anything before—was waiting with a handful of chapters in English for Levithan to read. Shortly thereafter, Scholastic committed to publishing the novel, which tells the story of two teenage boys’ friendship following the discovery that one has HIV. The book is slated for a June 2020 release (Larissa Helena is translating) and represents a milestone for its author—and a significant foray into YA books in translation for one of the largest children’s publishers in the world.—Alex Green
This article has been adapted from a story that originally appeared in the Dec. 10 edition of Children's Bookshelf.

14265-12.GIF
International
  • Wild House, a contemporary middle grade trilogy by Finnish author Siri Kolu, sold to Germany’s Fischer Kinder- und Jugendbuch Verlag after a three-way auction. The first book in the series was published in Finland in October by Otava. Finnish agency Rights & Brands brokered the deal, calling the book an “adventure with speedy chasing scenes, secretive characters... and a house so full of secrets that it grows legs and runs away.”
spacer.gif
  • Windmill, an imprint of Penguin UK, preempted a debut novel by Elizabeth Lee for six figures. The Bookseller said the novel, Cunning Women, is “set in a 1620 Lancashire fishing community” and follows a woman who “has a birthmark that reveals she is a witch.”


Page to Screen
  • The recently acquired book on WeWork by Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell has, per the Hollywood Reporter, been optioned by Chernin Entertainment and Endeavor Content for television. (No network is attached yet.) The currently untitled book was bought by Crown’s Paul Whitlach in September.
spacer.gif
  • Per Deadine, actress Chrissy Metz will produce and possibly star in a feature adaptation of Kara Richardson Whitely’s 2015 memoir Gorge: My Journey up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds (Seal). Amazon Studios optioned the book.

email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2019, PWxyz LLC

grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v6-120x.JPGPark Row Opens Penner’s ‘Apothecary’
For Park Row Books, Natalie Hallak preempted the debut novel by Sarah Penner for six figures. The Lost Apothecary, slated for March 2021, will be a lead title for the HarperCollins imprint. The historical novel opens with a focus on the female owner of an 18th-century London apothecary shop that, Park Row explained, “dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them.” Calling the book “Kate Morton meets The Miniaturist,” the publisher explained that it then jumps ahead 200 years and follows another woman, who is “running from her own demons” and “stumbles on a clue to the centuries-old unsolved apothecary murders.” The realization makes the lives of the two women from different centuries “converge in shocking ways.” Stefanie Lieberman at Janklow & Nesbit Associates brokered the world rights deal.
37663-v8-120x.JPGStewart’s ‘Shard’ Sells to Orbit
In a six-figure preempt, Brit Hvide at Orbit bought world English rights to Andrea Stewart’s fantasy novel Bone Shard Daughter. The debut, sold by Juliet Mushens at Caskie Mushens, is, the publisher said, “in the vein of R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War and S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass.” In the novel, which is set for fall 2020, rebels in the cities are rallying for independence “from the all-seeing eyes of the emperor’s magical constructs.” Among the royals, “the emperor’s daughter struggles to regain her memories, her power over the bone shard magic that rules the empire, and her rightful place as heir.”
spacer.gif
27974-v9-120x.JPGTrigiani Moves to Dutton
Bestselling author Adriana Trigiani (the Big Stone Gap series) closed a North American rights, two-book deal, moving from Harper to Dutton. Maya Ziv, who had edited Trigiani at Harper, won the books, the first of which is titled The Garden of Sundays, at auction from William Morris Endeavor’s Suzanne Gluck. The novel is based on the author’s personal experiences and will, Dutton said, “explore the meaning of home, love, and grief.” Noting that the book is similar to Trigiani’s 2012 bestseller The Shoemaker’s Wife, Dutton said The Garden of Sundays is “a past and present narrative spanning multiple generations.” In it, “a woman who has spent her life on the Ligurian coast of Italy must relive the war-torn Italy of her youth, and reveal her mother’s past, to help her granddaughter figure out her future.” Trigiani is the author of 18 books.
spacer.gif
38313-v3-120x.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
How Maya Got Fierce by Sona Charaipotra (pictured), a YA contemporary novel pitched as The Bold Type meets Younger; Ryan Graudin and Amie Kaufman's middle-grade adventure fantasy series, The World Between Blinks, about two cousins who stumble from our world into a magical place where all lost things end up; and Stonewall Honor author Anna-Marie McLemore's YA novel The Mirror Season, a reimagining of “The Snow Queen,” in which two teens who were sexually assaulted at the same party find their fates unexpectedly.

14416-23.PNG
36799-v6-120x.JPGBallantine Re-ups Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & the Six) closed a North American rights, two-book deal with Ballantine. The first novel under the agreement, Malibu Burning, is, the publisher said, “set against the backdrop of the Malibu surf culture of the 1980s.” It follows the daughter of a famous singer who, once she finds fame, must grapple with the fact that her father abandoned her and her siblings when they were young. Jennifer Hershey brokered the agreement with Theresa Park at Park & Fine Literary and Media. Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six—which Ballantine published in March—is currently in series development (with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine banner producing) after being optioned by Amazon Studios.
spacer.gif
36962-v13-120x.JPGPamela Dorman Lands Posey’s ‘Evensong’
For Viking’s Pamela Dorman Books, Jeramie Orton nabbed world rights to Rafe Posey’s debut, Evensong. The novel, sold by Danielle Bukowski at Sterling Lord Literistic, is about the relationship between a Royal Air Force pilot during WWII and the woman he loves, who is secretly recruited to be a code breaker at Bletchley Park. They must each decide, the publisher elaborated, “which dreams can be sacrificed and which secrets are too big to bear alone.” Evensong is slated for spring 2021.

14415-4.GIF


email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2019, PWxyz LLC

grr-logo2-2x.png
Deal of the Week
37919-v5-120x.JPGPaolini’s ‘Sleep’ Goes to Tor for Seven Figures
Franchise bestseller Christopher Paolini (the Inheritance Cycle series) sold a new novel to Tor in a seven-figure deal. Tor v-p and publisher Devi Pillai acquired To Sleep in a Sea of Stars in a world English rights agreement brokered with Simon Lipskar at Writers House. Calling the novel “a departure” for Paolini, Tor said Sleep is “a story of enormous intergalactic weight and consequence, but also of deeply personal human strength, compassion, and awe.” The novel, which will be edited by Pillai and executive editor William Hinton, follows a xenobiologist who discovers “an alien relic” during “a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet.” The discovery, Tor went on, “thrusts her into the wonders and nightmares of first contact.” Sleep is slated for publication on Sept. 15, 2020.
37663-v7-120x.JPGTrue Crime Podcasters Land at Dey Street
In a six-figure deal, the creators of the true crime podcast Up and Vanished signed a two-book deal with Dey Street Books. The podcast, created by Payne Lindsey and Donald Albright, explores missing-persons cold cases and is part of a suite of podcasts produced under the pair’s Tenderfoot TV banner. Dey Street said the multiple podcasts produced by Tenderfoot have, together, garnered more than 450 million downloads. The deal with Dey Street will see the authors launch a planned series of books that delves into missing persons cases not explored on the show. Carrie Thornton inked the world rights agreement with Pilar Queen at UTA.
spacer.gif
27974-v8-120x.JPGPulitzer Winner Takes on NAACP Leader
For Simon & Schuster, Bob Bender bought world English rights to David W. Blight’s biography of NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938). Blight, who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in history for Frederick Douglass (also published by S&S), was represented in the deal by Wendy Strothman at the Strothman Agency. The agency called Johnson a “Jim Crow–era artist, intellectual, and activist” who Blight reveals as “a Renaissance man in the era of segregation.” Elaborating, the agency said, “As Douglass was our voice for understanding the lived experience of slavery and the nature of the slavery issue in national life, Johnson is the same for the age of Jim Crow.” The Johnson biography is set for fall 2024.
spacer.gif
31471-v19-120x.JPGHendricks and Pekkanen Re-up at SMP
At St. Martin’s Press, Jennifer Enderlin inked the authors of 2018’s bestselling The Wife Between Us to a new two-book deal. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen were represented in the North American rights agreement by William Morris Endeavor’s Margaret Riley King and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. The Wife Between Us was followed up by this year’s bestselling An Anonymous Girl. The new books, Enderlin said, will “continue in the vein of twisty, female-oriented suspense that deals with relationships and the fallout of betrayal and revenge.” Forthcoming from the duo (and not part of this deal) is the March 2020–slated You Are Not Alone. Tracy Fisher at WME is handling translation rights.
spacer.gif
38313-v2-120x.JPGChildren's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include Ashley Elston’s (pictured) 10 Truths and a Dare, the sequel to 10 Blind Dates which has sold in 23 territories and for which Ace Entertainment has optioned film rights; Time Will Tell by Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers), a YA crime thriller in which a group of teens unearth a time capsule buried by their parents when they were in high school, only to find a murder weapon inside; and Living Beyond Borders: Stories About Growing Up Mexican in America by Margarita "Margie" Longoria, an anthology that features stories, poetry, and more from Mexican-American creators and influencers.

14389-3.GIF
36799-v5-120x.JPGFinch Extends Lenox’s Stay at Minotaur
For six figures, bestselling author Charles Finch signed a new two-book contract with his long-standing publisher. Charles Spicer at Minotaur took world rights to the currently untitled novels from Elisabeth Weed at the Book Group. Finch, who writes the popular Charles Lenox series (which, to date, includes 12 titles), is also a book critic and won the NBCC 2017 Nona Balakian Citation Award. The 13th novel in the Lenox series, which follows the titular Victorian amateur sleuth, will be released by Minotaur in February 2020, and this deal covers books 14 and 15 in the series.
spacer.gif
36962-v12-120x.JPGIndie Press Nabs Graphic Take on Nobel Winner
Minneapolis-based indie publisher Uncivilized Books acquired world rights to I Nina, a graphic adaptation of Nobel Prize–winner Olga Tokarczuk’s Polish novel Anna in the Catacombs. Polish cartoonist and children’s book author Daniel Chmielewski wrote I Nina, which was originally published in Poland in 2018. Tomasz Kaczynski, CEO and publisher of Uncivilized, bought the rights to the graphic work directly from the author and translator after, he said, the book’s original publisher, Wydawnictwo Komiksowe, was sold. Calling I Nina “one of the most inventive science fiction graphic novels in recent memory,” Kaczynski explained that the adaptation moves the narrative of Tokarczuk’s novel “into a near-future dystopia where humanity survives in a hermetically sealed multilevel world.”

14265-12.GIF
International
  • Reproduction, the 2019 Giller Prize winner by Ian Willams, was acquired by Dialogue Books, an imprint of Little, Brown UK. The Canadian novel was previously acquired in the U.S. by Europa Editions, which will publish the book stateside in May 2020. Bill Hamilton at A.M. Heath brokered the deal with Dialogue on behalf of Denise Bukowski at the Bukowski Agency. Bukowski called the novel “a tale of love among inherited and invented families.”
spacer.gif
  • A debut by a stonemason has been acquired in the U.K. Harvill Secker bought Beatrice Searle’s Stone Will Answer. The publisher, according to the Bookseller, called the book “part memoir, part meditation on stone and the transformative power of craft.”


Page to Screen
  • Leila Slimani’s French novel The Perfect Nanny, which won the Prix Goncourt in 2016, has been optioned for film by Legendary Pictures. Variety reports that the English-language adaptation of the book, which PW called an “unsettling tale of a nanny who insinuates herself into every aspect of her employers’ lives,” will be produced in coordination with French production shingles Why Not Productions and Pan-Européenne.
spacer.gif
  • An adaptation of King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild is the next directorial project for Ben Affleck. The book is about Belgium’s brutal colonization of the Congo in the early 20th century.

email-facebook.png
email-twitter.png
Send editorial inquiries about this e-newsletter to: internationaldeals@publishersweekly.com
Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: cbryerman@publishersweekly.com
Follow PW on Facebook and Twitter.
For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below.
Publishers Weekly,
71 West 23 St. #1608
New York, NY 10010
Phone 212-377-5500
Copyright 2019, PWxyz LLC








No comments:

Post a Comment