Bloomsbury Tilts at Windmills With Egginton

Anton Mueller at Bloomsbury USA took North American rights to William Egginton’s biography of Miguel Cervantes, The Man Who Invented Fiction. Lauren Smythe and Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management brokered the American deal, while David Miller at RCW sold U.K. rights to Bloomsbury UK’s Bill Swainson. Egginton is a professor at Johns Hopkins, and Bloomsbury said the book will explore how the novels Cervantes wrote, especially his masterpiece Don Quixote, “shattered the literary conventions of 17th-century Europe” and “created a modern worldview still relevant today.”

Balzer + Bray Goes with the King

For her Balzer + Bray imprint at HarperCollins, Alessandra Balzer took world rights, in a two-book deal, to Jenny Lee’s middle-grade novel Elvis and the Underdogs. In the book, Lee, who writes for the Disney Channel series Shake It Up, follows a feeble boy named Benji whose constant trips to the hospital stop after he gets a therapy dog—a talking Newfoundland—named Elvis. Agent Sally Wofford-Girand represented Lee, and Balzer said she pitched the book as “Wonder meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” Elvis and the Underdogs is slated for spring 2013.

Margolis Brings Thompson to HC

In her first acquisition at HarperCollins for the Newmarket Press imprint, Esther Margolis acquired world rights to film industry reporter Anne Thompson’s The Year. Eric Myers at the Spieler Agency represented Thompson, who currently oversees the daily blog ‘Thompson on Hollywood’ for Indiewire, and has written for most of the major consumer and trade movie publications, including Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and Premiere. The book, which is slated for fall 2013, examines a single year (2012) in Hollywood, focusing on the making, and marketing, of a wide array of films, from indies to blockbusters. Margolis said the book offers an insider’s take on “every facet of the business.”

SMP Keeps Kenyon… for Seven Figures

Sherrilyn Kenyon has signed a new contract with her current publisher, inking a seven-figure deal with St. Martin’s Press for three more books in her Dark-Hunter series. SMP publisher Matthew Shear took U.S., Canadian, and open market rights from Robert Gottlieb, chairman of Trident Media Group. There are 21 books in Kenyon’s bestselling paranormal series, with the next title, Time Untime, set to release from SMP on August 7. The first book in the new deal is scheduled for summer 2013. According to SMP, there are over 25 million copies of Kenyon’s books in print worldwide and, since 2004, she has had more than 60 novels on the New York Times bestseller lists.

Cronin, Liwska Land at Viking Kids

In a three-book deal Tracy Gates, associate editorial director at Viking Children’s Books, acquired Caldecott Honor winner Doreen Cronin’s picture book Boom, Snot, Twitty, as well as its sequel. Boom, Snot, Twitty, about a bear, snail, and bird searching for a place to relax, will be illustrated by Renata Liwska (The Quiet Book), and it’s scheduled for 2014, with a sequel to follow in 2015. Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties brokered the deal.

Gallery Gets Skinny, and Bitchy

Kim Barnouin, co-author of the bestselling diet book series Skinny Bitch, sold world English rights to her debut novel, in a two-book deal, to Karen Kosztolnyik at Simon & Schuster’s Gallery imprint. In Skinny Bitch in Love a vegan chef loses her job and her boyfriend in quick succession, then finds a new beginning after launching a vegan cooking school and falling for a meat-eating man. Agent Laura Dail of Laura Dail Literary brokered the deal, at auction, for Barnouin.