S&S Gets into Bed with ‘Gaggle’
Kerri Kolen at Simon & Schuster took world rights at auction to Jessica Massa’s The Gaggle: How to Find Love in the Post-Dating World. The book, which suggests that women now have a “gaggle” of men in their lives that fulfill different roles and needs, was initially under option at New Line Cinema—the deal came out of a concept that was pitched—with screenwriters Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg (Gnomeo and Juliet) attached. The title is partly based on the blog WTFisUpWithMyLoveLife.com, which, as the Web site explains, is part of a “multimedia project” based on the gaggle concept; the site defines the gaggle—the roles include “The Ego Booster,” “The Boyfriend Prospect,” and “The Hot Sex Prospect”—and features a collection of dating advice as well as stories from readers. Alex Glass at Trident Media closed the deal.

Other Press Goes Graphic
Marking Other Press’s first foray into comics, Judith Gurewich and Katie Henderson took world rights to Emil Ferris’s graphic novel, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. Holly Bemiss, of the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency, brokered the deal for Ferris. The novel is presented as the journal of a 10-year-old girl trying to solve the murder of a neighbor she had befriended who was a Holocaust survivor. Bemiss said Ferris’s art “reflects a world where monsters can be beautiful, and where goodness is found in the most unlikely places.”

Balzer + Bray Closes YA Double
In two major pre-Bologna acquisitions, HarperCollins’s Balzer + Bray ponied up for a YA trilogy and two new books from wunderkind author Ned Vizzini. In the first deal, agent Janet Reid, at FinePrint Literary Management, sold, for high six figures, a debut YA trilogy to Kristin Daly Rens. Rens pre-empted world rights to the currently untitled series, by Elizabeth Norris, just a few hours after receiving it, buying the work at 3 p.m. after getting the manuscript at 10 a.m. Book one in the series, Unraveling, is a romantic thriller about a 17-year-old girl who briefly dies after being hit by a car and is drawn into a tense relationship with the male classmate she is convinced saved her. The series has already been pre-empted in Germany, after an offer came in last week, and Hollywood has also shown strong interest. Reid pitched Unraveling, scheduled for 2012, as Lauren Oliver’s YA novel Before I Fall meets the TV show Fringe.

In the second deal, for what we hear is a major sum, Alessandra Balzer bought North American rights to The Other Normals and a second book by Vizzini (Be More Chill and It’s Kind of a Funny Story). Jay Mandel at William Morris Endeavor brokered the deal; the novel, about a late-bloomer nerd who becomes an unlikely hero at summer camp, is scheduled for fall 2012. The new novel marks the first effort from Vizzini since 2006’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which was adapted into the 2010 film of the same name, starring Emma Roberts.

Disney-Hyperion Time Travels with ‘Mobius’
In a two-book, six-figure acquisition, Lisa Yoskowitz at Disney-Hyperion bought North American rights to Tamara Ireland Stone’s debut YA novel, Mobius. Caryn Wiseman at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency closed the deal; she said the book, which she likened to The Time Traveler’s Wife, is set in 1995 and follows a 16-year-old girl who delves into a tragic love affair when she meets a boy who has the ability to travel through time. Wiseman said the book has been getting heavy foreign attention, with offers already on the table from some countries, and interest rising in Hollywood. Taryn Fagerness, at the Taryn Fagerness Agency, is handling foreign rights.

Mueller Brings Roberts to Bloomsbury
Heather Schroeder at ICM sold Paul Roberts’s new book, The Impulse Society, to his longtime editor, Anton Mueller, who is now at Bloomsbury USA. Mueller published both of Roberts’s previous books when he was at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt—The End of Oil (2004) and The End of Food (2008). The new book looks at how the increasing sway of technology has, as the publisher explained, “unleashed a world ruled less by actual need than by reckless desire” and in which both companies and consumers “chase the fastest payoff regardless of ultimate risks to health, happiness, and even survival.” The book is currently scheduled for winter 2013.