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NEWS NEWS / IN BRIEF
NEWS IN BRIEF NEWS
S&S‘ six-figure Peterson poach
BY SARAH SHAFFI HUNTER: GATHERED
A book by US comedian Reginald D Hunter will take “a wry look at what the British have taught him about etiquette, food, sex, relationships, politics and various other aspects of life in general”, said Hannah Knowles, commissioning editor at Octopus Publishing Group, who acquired world rights to the book from Mandy Ward at Mandy Ward Artist Management. The book will be published in hardback in autumn 2015.
AT HOME AT QUERCUS
Quercus has acquired a “stunning psychological suspense novel set partly in London, partly in Ireland”. Publishing director Stef Bierwerth bought UK and Commonwealth rights to You Can’t Go Home Again and a second novel by Margaret McQuaile, a graduate of Faber’s novel-writing course, through Nicola Barr at Greene & Heaton. Quercus will publish the title in summer 2016.
VAN GOGH TO VIRAGO
Virago has bought a novel by Susan Fletcher, told from the point of view of the wife of the warden at the Provence asylum where Vincent van Gogh was cared for in the final year of his life. Lennie Goodings bought UK and Commonwealth rights to Let Me Tell You About a Man I Knew, and one other book, from Vivienne Schuster at Curtis Brown. Goodings called the novel “haunting and compelling”; Virago will publish in autumn 2016.
Penguin imprint Fig Tree has signed Goodreads strategist Jade Chang’s début novel, The Wangs v The World, at auction for an undisclosed sum. Juliet Annan completed the deal with Juliet Mushens of The Agency Group, on behalf of Marc Gerald of The Agency Group NY. The title tells the story of the Wang family, Chinese immigrants who return to their homeland in 2008 after the collapse of patriarch Charles’ cosmetics empire.
Novelist Alice Peterson (inset) has moved from Quercus to Simon & Schuster in a six-figure deal. S&S publishing director
Jo Dickinson bought world rights to two novels from The Agency Group’s Diana Beaumont, in the latter’s first deal since joining the company from the Rupert Heath Literary Agency. Dickinson said: “Alice writes from the heart and is a
truly wonderful storyteller. Her novels always contain warmth and humour, but she also aims to take the reader to a darker place where characters have to overcome adversity. The two novels we have bought promise to be very special indeed—we have ambitious plans in place.” Peterson added: “I am delighted to be working with Jo and the team at S&S, their enthusiasm and vision has been inspiring. My thanks to Quercus for all they have done for me. I can’t wait to get started on the new book.” Peterson has written four novels, all published by
Quercus: Monday to Friday Man, Ten Years On, By My Side and One Step Closer to You. Her first book for S&S will be published in 2017.
Transworld tops at brain auction
BY TOM TIVNAN
A groundbreaking look into how adolescent brain development “determines the people we become” was won by Transworld’s Susanna Wadeson after a 12-publisher auction. Wadeson bought UK & Commonwealth rights,
excluding Canada, to The Almond and the Seahorse by neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (inset). The “fierce” auction was brokered by Will Francis from Janklow & Nesbit at yesterday’s LBF (14th April). German rights were pre-empted by S Fischer “within hours” of the proposal being sent out. The book is the product of Blakemore’s 12-year
investigation into teenagers’ brain development. It shows how typical teenage traits are all explicable by underlying changes in the structure of the brain, and how that forms later brain development. Blakemore, a Royal Society University Research
Fellow, is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Universty College London. She has won numerous research awards, and was on the Sunday Times’ “100 Makers of the 21st Century 2014” list.
MAY: 3D WILL ROCK YOU!
At a press conference at yesterday’s London Book Fair (14th April), Brian May revealed that he will publish a new book of 3-D Queen photos, Queen in 3-D (Autumn 2016), via his own publishing imprint, the London Stereoscopic Company (LSC). Only a handful of the photographs included in the book have been seen before. The photographs need to be viewed using an “OWL” 3-D viewer, designed by May himself, which come included with each copy of the book. The LSC has a presence at the London Book Fair for the first time, on the Independent Publishers Guild’s stand.
FIG TREE PICKS UP DÉBUT Twenty7 buys for Bonnier
Twenty7 Books, Bonnier’s début-only adult fiction imprint, has revealed its first acquisitions. The list will publish exclusively in e-book first, with mass-market paperbacks released around six months later. The imprint’s first title will be Ayisha Malik’s
Sofia Kahn is not Obliged, described as “the Muslim Bridget Jones”, in September. Other buys include psychological drama The Hidden Legacy by Graham Minett; Stasi Child, the first in a historical crime
trilogy by David Young; and The Exclusives by Rebecca Thornton, which is set in an elite private school. Publisher Joel Richardson said: “We feel that our
innovative method of publishing first in digital will enable us to go to retailers with a story behind each title as we sell the physical books, using reviews and e-book sales figures to encourage retailers to support us in the current risk-averse environment.” Both Twenty7 and Zaffre, a commercial adult fiction imprint, were brought to Bonnier by Mark Smith, who joined the company in January this year. For an extended interview with Smith, see pp16–17.
16.04.15
www.thebookseller.com
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