Amazon Collects Mindy Kaling’s Essays

In summer 2020, Amazon Original Stories will publish a collection of brief essays by Mindy Kaling, actor, producer, and author of the memoirs Why Not Me? and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? The essays, which were acquired by Amazon Original Stories editorial director Julia Sommerfeld, will be available for free to Prime and Kindle Unlimited customers. Others can download the collection as a Kindle e-book or Audible audiobook. Richard Abate of 3 Arts Entertainment repped the author.

Feiwel and Friends Goes for ‘Blood’

Jon Yaged, president and publisher of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, acquired world English rights to Blood, a memoir by the Jonas Brothers, who reunited this year and made a major comeback with the single “Sucker.” The book, written with Neil Strauss (The Dirt), will be published November 12 under the Feiwel and Friends imprint. Albert Lee at UTA brokered the deal.

Minotaur Is Bullish for Anna Downes

Minotaur executive editor Catherine Richards came out the winner in an auction for The Safe Place, a suspense novel by Anna Downes that was inspired by the author’s work as a housekeeper on a remote French estate 10 years ago. The deal for North American rights was brokered by Hillary Jacobson at ICM Partners. The book, which sold at auction in two other English-language territories, will be out from Minotaur in summer 2020. Croatian, Dutch, German, Hungarian, and Russian rights were also sold.

Penguin Press Pays for ‘Economic Dignity’

Scott Moyers at Penguin Press picked up world rights to Gene Sperling’s Economic Dignity from Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly. Sperling, who was National Economic Council director to presidents Clinton and Obama, offers what the publisher calls a “profound big-picture vision of why dignity must be our North Star for charting our economic future.” Publication is set for next year.

Macmillan Preempts a Debut—Twice

Jenna Johnson at FSG snatched up North American rights to newly minted NYU MFA graduate Raven Leilani’s debut novel, Luster, from Ellen Levine at Trident Media, who originated the deal. Across the pond, Kishani Widyaratna at Picador Books UK preempted the book for U.K. and Commonwealth rights from Dorothy Vincent.

“I’m old-fashioned: I don’t write about sitting presidents, so those looking for a tell-all will be disappointed,” said former secretary of defense Jim Mattis in Random House’s publication announcement of his new book, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead. Instead, he added, “My purpose in writing this book is to convey some of the lessons I learned in 43 years of service, for those who might benefit in the military or in civilian life.”

The book, due out July 16, was sold in 2013, long before Mattis became President Trump’s defense secretary, at which point it was set aside. Mattis then resigned in December 2018.

“When Random House first acquired General Mattis’s memoir, we were of course drawn to his experience leading millions of troops around the globe,” Random House editor-in-chief Andy Ward told PW. ‘‘But we were also so impressed by his deep reading, across a vast range of subjects, and his lifelong love of books—and his reliance on them as a leadership tool.”

Written with Bing West, the author of 10 works about combat, the book takes its title from Mattis’s call sign, Chaos, from his days commanding the Seventh Marine Regiment in the mid-1990s.