Deals: Rubin's New Pet

Within two hours of receiving the proposal, Doubleday publisher Steve Rubin preempted world rights to New York Times editor Janet Elder's tentatively titled Huck on an exclusive submission from Esther Newberg; Rubin paid six figures. Newberg approached Rubin with the story of a poodle named Huck that had transformed Elder's life because she knew about Rubin's enthusiasm for dogs. After making an offer, Rubin hurried to a lunch date not knowing if the offer was accepted, only to run into Newberg at the same restaurant—where she urged him to check his BlackBerry. Christine Pride will edit and the book will be published by Broadway in spring 2010.

Touchstone senior editor Michelle Howry preempted world rights to David Bianculli's Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored History of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Show” from Laurie Fox at Linda Chester. Television critic and Fresh Air contributor Bianculli will chronicle the rise and fall of the influential comedy show, which launched the careers of writers like Steve Martin and Rob Reiner, and was ultimately forced off the air. Touchstone will publish in fall 2009, the 50th anniversary of the duo's debut as a comedy team and the 40th anniversary of their show's sudden removal from the CBS lineup.

Bestselling author Luanne Rice has made a deal for an epistolary novel she'll co-write with Joseph Monninger titled The Letters; Rice's longtime editor at Bantam, Tracy Devine, bought North American rights from Andrea Cirillo at Jane Rotrosen, representing Rice, and Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord on behalf of Monninger. Rice and Monninger have maintained a friendship via correspondence for years, which led them to the idea for the book, in which they will assume fictional personas to create a novel in letters. Monninger is the author of eight novels; Rice's most recent is January's Light of the Moon. Bantam will publish in hardcover in October.

For Knopf, Edward Kastenmeier won North American rights to Into the Jungle by Victoria Bruce, Karin Hayes and Jorge Enrique Botero via an auction conducted by Peter McGuigan at Foundry. American filmmakers Bruce and Hayes and Colombian journalist Botero, the only reporter to go behind FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) lines, will tell the inside story of the Colombian conflict. The three have previously collaborated on two documentaries on guerrilla kidnappings in Colombia. Pub date undecided at this point.

Collins executive editor Nancy Miller bought world English rights to a memoir by Harriet Brown called Brave Girl Eating via Miriam Altshuler. When Brown's daughter developed anorexia at 14, Brown refused to accept the dismal track record of traditional approaches to eating disorders; this is the story of her family's triumph over the disease, weaving together a parent's perspective, a journalist's point of view and issues of neurobiology and genetics. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Brown wrote about her family's experience in the Times Magazine in 2006.

Free Press senior editor Emily Loose has acquired a new book by Charles Fishman titled Dry: The Fate of Water; Rafe Sagalyn sold North American rights. The book will examine the passing of the “golden age of water” as we enter a new era of water scarcity. Fishman, an editor-at-large at Fast Company, is also the author of The Wal-Mart Effect, which Loose also edited while at the Penguin Press. Tentative pub date is 2010.