TODAY'S NEWS

HMH Strikes Deal for Greenwood with ABC-CLIO
by Jim Milliot
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has reached a deal with ABC-CLIO that gives the Santa Barbara, Calif. company a perpetual license to use the imprints and publish the titles of HMH’s Greenwood Publishing Group subsidiary. HMH acquired Greenwood as part of its acquisition of Harcourt’s publishing division from Reed Elsevier. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the agreement includes the transfer of certain Greenwood assets--including copyrights, contracts and inventory--to ABC-CLIO. While the agreement falls short of an outright purchase, ABC-CLIO president Becky Snyder said the agreement, “gives us all we need to grow the business.” A spokesperson for HMH said the deal gives the company the chance to benefit from the growth of the company. Imprints involved in the deal are Greenwood Press, Praeger Publishers, Praeger Security International and Libraries Unlimited; in all, the imprints publish more than 18,000 titles plus a range of electronic materials. Read on »

Portfolio Adds Porter Title
by Matthew Thornton
Portfolio publisher Adrian Zackheim prevailed over several other high-level bidders in a fast and fierce auction for New York Times editorial board member Eduardo Porter’s first book, tentatively titled Pricing It: How We Price and Misprice Life, the Universe, and Everything. Zoe Pagnamenta, who went out with the submission a week ago Tuesday, had the world rights (excluding U.K.) deal in place by Friday for a sum said to be in the high six figures. Read on »

Margolis Wins Poor Richard Award
Esther Margolis, founder of Newmarket Press and longtime executive at Bantam Books, has been named the 2008 winner of the Poor Richard Award. Presented by the New York Center for Independent Publishing, the award is given to a publisher who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of independent publishing. Margolis founded Newmarket in 1982 and has developed a backlist of over 300 titles in a variety of nonfiction areas. Among the authors Newmarket has published are Dr.Georgia Witkin, Suze Orman, Gene Hackman and Dan Lenihan, Stuart Avery Gold, and Daphne Oz. Newmarket was also one of the first U.S. publishers to tap into the Sudoku craze, publishing a number of successful books, and the company’s series of Newmarket Shooting Scripts and Pictorial Moviebooks have been steady sellers. Read on »

New Canadian Distributors for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Canongate
By Lynn Andriani
Thomas Allen Publishers will become the exclusive Canadian distributor for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, effective January 1, 2009. Gary Gentel, president of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's trade and reference division, said, "Houghton Mifflin has had a long and wonderful relationship with Thomas Allen and we're pleased to build on this success by having them take on the combined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt." Raincoast was the previous Canadian distributor for Harcourt.

In other Canadian distribution news, Penguin Group Canada will become the exclusive Canadian distributor for UK independent Canongate Books, effective May 1, 2009. Canongate publisher and managing director, Jamie Byng said, “It feels like a perfect match and we already have affiliations with Penguin in other parts of the world that we are very happy with.” National sales director Tim Carter will add Canadian sales for Canongate to his current responsibilities for Penguin UK. Among the Canongate titles Penguin will launch next spring are Mari Strachan’s The Earth Hums in B Flat and Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. Publishers Group Canada was the previous Canadian distributor for Canongate.

Page to Screen: A Vampire Hunter and a Teenage Angel
By Rachel Deahl
Bill Contardi has just closed on a film deal for Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Books with 50 Canon Entertainment. The trilogy, which is published by Ace Books and launched three years ago with Moon Called, follows a vampire-hunter who has the ability to shapeshift into a coyote. The titles grew from cult hits into Times bestsellers and, according to Contardi, there are now 250,000 copies in print. 50 Canon, the production outfit of director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), has optioned the series and will lay out escalating purchase prices, in the "mid six figures" per Contardi, for each title if and when the option is exercised. (Contardi also confirms that Ace Books has contracted for four more Mercy Thompson books and that the first comic book adaptation of the series is due out from Dabel Brothers late this month.)

On the shopping side, Patricia Burke at Inkwell Management is going out with film rights on two titles--a YA book called Hush, Hush and a novel called Border Songs. Hush, Hush, whose print rights were just sold by Catherine Drayton at Inkwell in a two-book deal to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, is by Becca Ajoy Fitzpatrick and follows a 16-year-old who becomes enamored with a fallen angel. Inkwell is dubbing the book part teen love story and part fast-paced thriller. Border Songs, by The Highest Tide author Jim Lynch, is a love story set in a Canadian border town; Tide is in development at the indie GreeneStreet Films.

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PW SPRING ADULT ANNOUNCEMENTS
A letter was sent to publishers on September 23 requesting submissions for our January 26 adult announcement listings. If you did not receive the letter, e-mail Dick Donahue.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Between Here and April; Bulletproof Your Job; Marcella Remembers
Authors on this morning’s Today included: photojournalist Deborah Copaken Kogan, author of the debut novel Between Here and April (Algonquin Books, $23.95).and workplace expert Stephen Viscusi explained Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work (Collins Business, $19.95). After the jump: Naomi Klein, Marcella Hazan and Philip Roth. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Edleman Rocks the 'Boat'
On September 23, People magazine hosted a lunch for author Marian Wright Edelman to celebrate the release of her new book, The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small (Hyperion). Edelman, who is founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, is also celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the CDF this month. Edelman (l.) is pictured here with Hyperion executive editor Gretchen Young. Submit your pictures here»

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