Short Takes

The woman who survived longest in the hit TV show The Apprentice has been signed by St. Martin's Press to tell her story and offer advice to ambitious businesswomen like herself. She is Amy Henry and her book will be called What It Takes: Speak Up, Step Up, Move Up. Editor Nichole Argyres signed for world rights, including audio and serial, with agent Maura Teitelbaum at Abrams Artists.... Carlo De Vito at Penguin's Chamberlain Bros. bought world rights in a book on racehorse Smarty Jones—whether or not he becomes the first in more than 25 years to win the Triple Crown. The deal for the book by Carol Turkington was signed with agent Eugene Brissie, and Erin Curler will edit for publication as soon as next month.... O. Henry Award–winning author David Long, previously published by Scribner, is moving to Houghton Mifflin for a new novel, Purgatorio, about a suicide looking back on his life from the hereafter; the house's Heidi Pitlor bought North American rights from Sally Wofford-Girand.... Miramax's Jonathan Burnham bought a children's book (and its sequel) by Rick Riordan, a first effort for this market by a writer who usually offers tough mysteries. It's a mythic fantasy called Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and Burnham paid a significant North American advance to agent Nancy Gallt.... Ballantine's Linda Marrow has signed novelist Carol Goodman (The Lake of Dead Languages) to a further two-book deal in the mid six figures, even before the last books on her previous contract are out. The agent, who has also made a number of significant foreign deals for Goodman, is Loretta Barrett.... Knopf's Jordan Pavlin preempted a book about cutting-edge developments in the world of procreation by Washington Post feature writer Liza Mundy. It's called Babies Inc.: How High-Tech Babymaking Is Transforming America and the World, and Pavlin bought world rights for a significant sum from agent Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. The book is due for delivery next year.