More Deals Trickling Out of Frankfurt
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 10/17/2008 1:33:00 AM
After a relatively strong start to deal-making on Wednesday, action in the rights center slowed considerably Thursday and Friday. As has become almost standard practice, some of the smaller agencies said they hadn't closed any deals at the Fair, but were optimistic that the groundwork done at Frankfurt would pay off in the near future. Still, with thousands of agents and editors in attendance, deals did get done.
Betsy Robbins, at Curtis Brown, is buzzing about David Engleman's Sum which will be released in the U.S. from Pantheon in January. The book, which is "40 imagined tales of what the afterlife could be like," is the first trade title from Engleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor who's written a number of academic books, and has been sold in Holland and Germany so far. Robbins said that Jamie Byng, who bought the book for Canongate, has been a helpful evangelist, excitedly pitching it to other foreign editors.
Robert Gottlieb has gotten some more nibbles, and one big bite, on the Russian fantasy series he told PW about before the Fair. The trilogy, from Russian bestseller Alexey Pehov, has sold in a six figure deal to S&S UK; Ian Chapman made the buy and the British plan to follow the American publishing schedule. (Tor is publishing stateside.) As of this writing there were potential deals brewing in Germany, Holland and France, as well.
Ira Silverberg, who closed a big deal for Adam Haslett pre-Fair, also took on foreign rights for the Jack Kerouac estate and has been in talks about a number of international projects for the Beat author.
Neil Olson at Donadio & Olson has been closing deals all Fair on the latest from Chuck Palahnuik, Pymgy. The manuscript, which came in "a few weeks ago," has already sold in Italy. Olson has also been pleasantly surprised by the interest in a pseudonymous Mario Puzo pulp novel he's been selling called Six Graves to Munich. The paperback original has sold in the UK and Poland and, although Olson wasn't planning on making a deal for the now-out-of-print title in the U.S. that may change since "there's interest."
Tracy Fisher at William Morris has been dealing with a number of foreign offers on the screenplay from Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Bastards. The controversial pic about a gang of Jewish-American soldiers who go on a gory Nazi killing spree during WWII is just going into production--Tarantino arrived in Berlin this week to start filming--is the subject of potential deals in France, Italy, Spain and Brazil. The U.S. deal for the script should close, per Fisher, before the end of the Fair. Fisher also has some new foreign deals for Jean Kwok's Goddess of Infinite Faces; the book, which sold to Riverhead in the U.S. has closed in Holland and Italy and offers are in from houses in Germany, Brazil and Israel. Fisher has also accepted a German preempt on Me and Miss M, a novel "in the vein of The Devil Wears Prada" by Brit Jemma Forte about a young Londoner who becomes the assistant of a demanding Hollywood actress appearing in a West End production. (The book is due out in the U.K. in September 2009 and will be submitted to U.S. houses after the Fair.)
And, in case you thought there weren't any Americans from big houses buying at the Fair, Carrie Kania has purchased Ten Storey Long Song by Richard Milward. Kania, who said the book is about "sex, drugs, rock and roll and Francis Bacon," nabbed the book from Jason Cooper at Faber & Faber. (Milward's first book, the 2007 paperback original Apples, was published by Canongate U.S.)
Peter McGuigan at Foundry Media talked about a number of offers that have come in on the agency's big book of the Fair, the novel Adopting Adults by Randy Susan Meyers. Forthcoming from St. Martin's in the U.S.--planned pub date is Winter 2010--the book is a "domestic drama" told from the perspective of two sisters that witnessed their father kill their mother. Foundry has closed on a deal in Germany and has offers in from publishers in the U.K., Australia, Holland. (Potential deals also brewing in France, Spain and Italy.)
Chad Post at Open Letter closed on a deal for two books by Quim Monzo, Gasoline and Guadalajara. Monzo is a Catalan author and spoke at the opening press conference for the Fair last year. Post is about to make an offer on three books by the (recently deceased) Argentine author Juan Jose Saer.
Atlantyca Entertainment has licensed English-language rights to four books in Italian author Pierdomenico Baccalario’s Century series, published in Italy by Edizioni Piemme. Jim Thomas, editorial director at Random House Books for Young Readers, acquired the books—about four children who are chosen to complete missions “to settle an important legendary and vital pact between man and nature”—from Atlantyca, which has licensed the series in 10 countries to date. Random House is scheduled to publish the first book in the series in fall 2009.
