Big Buy for Radio Star

Another Howard, Clark Howard, is a big name in the world of talk radio; his show offering financial and consumer advice is ranked as No. 3 in the nation, with over five million listeners—a bully platform that has just secured him a three-book deal said to be for a "significant" seven figures, from Hyperion's Mary Ellen O'Neill. She bought world rights to a book already published (by Atlanta's Longstreet Press), Get Clark Smart, as well as two others, from agent Laurie Liss at the Harvey Klinger Agency. The published one is a book about how to live frugally, and the second will be a specific guide as to what to buy to get the most value. Liss said that when she took Howard around to meet publishers, in the dog days just before the Labor Day holiday, she received preemptive offers from six of them. Howard has been highly visible in the media lately, with a story on his radio show in the Wall Street Journal and several major TV appearances. Howard's collaborator for the books is Mark Meltzer, and Hyperion aims to publish Get Clark Smart next spring, with the second one to follow a year later.