Short Takes
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 1/13/2003
Newly independent agent Liv Blumer, formerly at Barney Karpfinger, has made several recent deals, mostly for authors she had inherited, representing them here for London and Australian agents. For the Heath agency she sold A Girl's Best Friend by Elizabeth Young to Lyssa Keusch at Avon, and made a two book-deal for Elizabeth McGregor with Wendy McCurdy at Bantam, moving the author from Dutton. And on behalf of Curtis Brown Australia, she sold a nonfiction memoir, Almost French, a bestseller in author Sarah Turnbull's native Australia, to Lauren Marino at Penguin Putnam's new Gotham imprint.... Rob Weisbach, now at Simon & Schuster, has bought a book called Be Prepared, a guide for new fathers, done slyly in the style of a classic 1950s scout handbook, and created by a pair of new parents, Gary Greenberg and his illustrator wife, Jeannie Hayden. The North American rights sale was made by Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth.
