Doubleday Gets “Older” with Maigret and Mas
In a preempt, Doubleday’s Shelley Wanger took North American rights to Caroline de Maigret and Sophie Mas’s Older but Better, but Older. The authors, who wrote the bestseller How to Be a Parisian Wherever You Are, were represented by agent Susanna Lea, who has an eponymous shingle. This book, Lea said, is “an irreverent, playful account of leaving your youth behind.” Rights had also sold, at press time, to publishers in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K.
Hajdu Goes Graphic at Columbia
David Hajdu (Positively 4th Street) sold his first work of graphic nonfiction to Columbia University Press. Phillip Leventhal at Columbia took world English rights to A Revolution in Three Acts from Chris Calhoun at the Chris Calhoun Agency. Calhoun said the book is “a historical story of three ‘wildly transgressive’ stars of the Vaudeville stage: Bert Williams, the African-American minstrel performer; Eva Tanguay, the ‘I Don’t Care’ girl; and Julian Eltinge, a female impersonator.” Cartoonist John Carey is handling art for the book.
Gallery Buys New Andrews Titles
Gallery Books’ Jennifer Bergstrom inked a four-book deal, with Writers House, to continue publishing V.C. Andrews–bylined books. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic) died in 1986, but her series has lived on; Flowers in the Attic titles have continually been released for over 30 years. Al Zuckerman at WH inked the world rights agreement, through which Andrew Neiderman (The Devil’s Advocate) will continue to pen the Andrews-branded titles. The first book under the deal is titled The Swan and, per Zuckerman, “explores the story of the first Corrine, the grandmother of the mother who locks her children in an attic” in Flowers in the Attic. It’s planned that The Swan and its sequel will be two of the four titles under this deal. The publication of the original Flowers in the Attic will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year.
Morrow Re-ups Shalvis
Bestselling author Jill Shalvis signed a four-book deal with William Morrow and its Avon imprint. The world rights agreement, brokered by Shalvis’s current editor, May Chen, and Writers House agent Robin Rue, covers three new Heartbreaker Bay contemporary romances that will be released by Avon, as well as a women’s fiction trade paperback to be published by Morrow.
Wallace Kennedy Hits the “Road” with Bloomsbury
Nancy Miller at Bloomsbury bought North American rights to a book by Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of former Alabama governor and vocal Jim Crow supporter George Wallace. The book, titled The Broken Road, will offer, Bloomsbury said, “a powerful look back at [the author’s] political awakening and her life as the daughter of one of America’s most virulent segregationists.” Wallace Kennedy, who is writing The Broken Road with her husband Mark Kennedy (a former Alabama Supreme Court justice), is now, as Bloomsbury put it, “a noted racial reconciliation advocate”; she was represented by Gail Ross at the Ross Yoon Agency, and the book is set for winter 2020.
Briefs
Eileen Rothschild at St. Martin’s Press took world rights to three new books in Emily March’s bestselling Eternity Springs series. Meg Ruley and Christina Hogrebe at the Jane Rotrosen Agency represented March, who will, with the books released under the deal, be branching the series out to a new plot arc called the McBrides of Texas. The contemporary romances, set in a small town, will begin with Boone in spring 2019 and, SMP said, will be a “family-linked trilogy set within the Eternity Springs world.”
For Thomas & Mercer, Jessica Tribble bought world rights, at auction, to a currently untitled debut by Vanessa Lillie. The psychological suspense title was sold by Victoria Sanders at Victoria Sanders & Associates; she said the novel, set for 2019, follows “a new mother suffering from postpartum psychosis while reeling from the brutal murder of a close friend.”
John Scognamiglio at Kensington nabbed world rights to James D. Shipman’s Task Force Baum in a deal brokered by Evan Marshall at the Evan Marshall Agency. The novel is based on the true story of the secret mission orchestrated by General Patton in March 1945 that sent a group of American soldiers into Germany. Kensington said the “unauthorized raid” saw “300 men dash 50 miles behind enemy lines to liberate a POW camp because one of its prisoners was [Patton’s] son-in-law.” Shipman’s book, Kensington added, tells the story of the raid from three different points of view.
In another deal at St. Martin’s Press, Peter Wolverton took world English rights to Brian C. Muraresku’s The Religion with No Name. The book, subtitled Rediscovering a Lost History of Psychedelics, the Secret Origins of Christianity and the Faith of the Future, was described by SMP as “David Grann meets Dan Brown” and chronicles the author’s attempts to “reveal how psychedelics hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of the cosmos and the meaning of life, and why these taboo substances are destined to save a civilization in crisis.” Emma Parry at Janklow & Nesbit represented the author.
Sasquatch Books’ Susan Roxborough acquired world rights to Melissa Hart’s Better with Books: 500 Diverse Novels to Open Minds, Ignite Empathy, and Encourage Self-Acceptance in Teens. The nonfiction title was sold by Jennifer Unter at the Unter Agency and will, the agent said, “help young readers explore social issues affecting their lives.” The book is set for April 2019.
For more children’s and YA book deals, see our latest Rights Report.
