Buying Roiphe, Selling Herself

Yet another inside-publishing story, this time about an editor who in the same week signed a significant new deal for a major author and sold a novel of her own—to another house, of course. She is Elizabeth Maguire, associate publisher and editorial director at Basic Books, who bought a new nonfiction work by Ann Roiphe and, at the same time, sold her first novel to Philip Turner at Carroll & Graf. First, the buy: Maguire bought Roiphe's Married: A Common Predicament from Lisa Bankoff at ICM, world rights, in a "major deal," and plans to publish next summer. Roiphe will draw upon her own experiences, as well as literature and pop culture, to examine the pros and cons of wedded bliss—in the end, registering a yea vote. Maguire's novel, Thinner, Blonder, Whiter, is about a politically incorrect interracial marriage, set against a background of New York politics and publishing. Betsy Lerner at the Gernert Company made the sale, world English and Japanese rights.