Two significant book deals in connection with popular TV shows were signed last week, one for 60 Minutes, a 34-year veteran, the other for Queer as Folk, just two seasons old. David Hirshey at HarperCollins signed the first, a six-figure buy of a book tentatively titled Tick... Tick... Tick: Inside the Most Successful Show in the History of Television by magazine journalist David Blum. Blum has been promised full access to CBS records and to Don Hewitt, the show's legendary creator and executive producer, and will cover the changing of the guard at the show as well as some of its great moments and famous names, including Dan Rather, Mike Wallace and Diane Sawyer. Publication is expected in spring 2004, and the world rights deal was with agent Alice Martell. The Queer as Folk project involves Pocket Books getting together with Showtime to offer three novels and a nonfiction companion based on the popular series about a group of gay people. Pocket's Louise Burke and Liate Stehlik signed the deal with Showtime's Sallie Fraenkel, and its first fruit will appear next March.