Short Takes

by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 7/26/2004

Kris Puopolo at Broadway paid six figures for a book called The Culture Code, by cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Dr. Clotaire Rapaille. It looks for the reasons behind the way Americans live and buy as they do, and was a world rights buy from Peter Miller and Scott Hoffman at PMA Literary.... A children's book by debut novelist (and Iowa Writers Workshop grad) Trenton Lee Stewart was aggressively preempted for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers by Megan Tingley; she paid six figures to agent Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit to beat four other publishers for The Mysterious Benedict Society, which involves readers taking tests also taken by its young characters.... Viking's Wendy Wolf bought Bacardi, a book on the Cuban rum-distilling dynasty whose fortunes have been tied up with those of the island for 150 years. Author Tom Gjelten is an award-winning NPR correspondent, and Wolf bought his book from agent Gail Ross, for publication in 2006.... A first novel about the efforts of Latina women in the U.S. to fit into the prevailing culture while preserving the best of their own, Sister Chicas, was bought for NAL by Kara Caesare; she bought North American rights for both English and Spanish editions from agent Nick Ellison, acting on behalf of the three authors, Ann Cardinal, Lisa Alvarado and Jane Alberdeston Coralin .... An unprecedented movie deal with Nobel Prize–winner Gabriel García Márquez was signed with Scott Steindorff'sStone Village Productions after the producer had spent two years pursuing the reluctant author. The deal is for Love in the Time of Cholera and was signed with Carmen Balcells and Nuria Coloma at Balcells's Barcelona agency for over $1 million, with close to twice as much added if a movie goes into production.