Short Takes
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 8/2/2004
Viking/Plume president Clare Ferraro, who says she is a fan of bestselling British women's author Jane Green, herself paid a healthy advance, reportedly into seven figures, to lure her, for three books, from Broadway, where she was previously published. Ferraro bought U.S., first serial and audio rights from Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider, representing Green's U.K. agent; Trena Keating will edit, and the first of the new titles, out next spring, will be The Other Woman.... A diet prepared for the director of the hit documentary Super Size Meto detoxify him and lower his weight after he had been eating solely at McDonald's for a month for the movie, was bought for Rodale by Margot Schupf. It's called The Great American Detox Diet and was expanded by holistic health counselor Alex Jamieson from the plan she gave director Morgan Spurlock (who's also her boyfriend).North American rights were bought from agent Elyse Cheney at Sanford Greenburger.... Atria publisher Judith Curr re-upped for another pair of legal thrillers about popular D.A. Butch Karp by Robert K. Tanenbaum. It was a world English deal, for Wendy Walker to edit, with Pocket paperbacks to follow. Agent Robert DiForio made the deal.... What is claimed as the first definitive account of the high school killings at Columbine was bought for Dutton by Mitch Hoffman. It's called A Lasting Impression on the World, and author Dave Cullen of Salon.com has spent five years of research on it, including a first use of recently released FBI reports profiling the young killers. Hoffman won the book at an auction run by Betsy Lerner of The Gernert Company.... An unusual literary history, tracing how thrillers have become America's favorite form of fiction in recent decades, was bought for Random House by Mark Tavani. It's called The Triumph of the Thriller and the author, who has written thrillers himself, is former speechwriter and now book reviewer Patrick Anderson. The book was bought for world rights from agent Ronald Goldfarb.
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