I’m packed and ready to go to Frankfurt. This year my bags are noticeably lighter thanks to my new Sony eReader, and I’m excited to pitch the most interesting list of books I’ve ever represented. You can view and download the full United Agents Adult Fiction and Non-fiction lists at the United Agents website here.
The past few weeks have already been busy with Dutch, Spanish, and Catalan deals for John Boyne’s new manuscript, THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE (to be published in the UK by Transworld in May 2009). It is a glorious, romantic epic of love and loss, chance and change, beginning in Russia 1915. John Boyne recently returned home from a trip to Spain for both the Spanish premier of the film of “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, already one of the most acclaimed and successful films of 2008, and the Spanish publication of his newest novel, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. He was featured all over the Spanish press and we’re delighted to see “Motin en el Bounty” hit the Spanish bestseller chart at number 6 while “El Nino con el pijama de rayas” is number 1!
Another novel I will be featuring at Frankfurt are Lucy Dawson’s second novel, WHAT MY BEST FRIEND DID, a stunning follow-up to her bestselling debut, HIS OTHER LOVER, which Sphere published earlier this year. WHAT MY BEST FRIEND DID is a riveting story about female deceit. It kept my pulse racing from the first to last page and I read it in one sitting on a plane back from The Gothenburg Book Fair. There was a Swedish publisher sitting a couple rows ahead of me on the same plane to London and I gave her my copy. Then as soon as I got back to the office I started emailing about it, and since then I’ve accepted two-book offers from Fleuve Noir/France, Record/Brazil, and Mondadori/Italy! Hopefully a Swedish offer will come next…
This past week in London, Luciana Villas Boas of Record/Brazil also bought Portuguese rights to THE GLASS ROOM by Simon Mawer, one of the most beautiful and satisfying novels I’ve read all year (see my earlier blog postings) and which is already sold to Civilizacao/Portugal, Ambo Anthos/Netherlands, Neri Pozza/Italy, and in Czech. Little, Brown will publish in the UK on January 15th, 2009.
And the same Brazilian publisher, Record, also pre-empted acclaimed historian Margaret Macmillan’s new book, THE USES AND ABUSES OF HISTORY. Penguin Canada has already published a Canadian edition and Profile/UK and Random House/US will publish a more universal edition in Spring 2009. Dutch rights sold this summer to Mouria and recently Korean rights also sold via the Shin Won Agency.
Another non-fiction title I’m excited to feature at Frankfurt is Ben Goldacre’s first book, BAD SCIENCE. Fourth Estate published a few weeks ago and it immediately became a word-of-mouth bestseller. The book brilliantly expands upon Ben Goldacre’s popular Guardian column and hilarious blog, empowering general readers to identify dodgy science in the media and advertising and making the fundamentals of scientific experiments and data analysis seem exciting and fun. As a review on Bookbag put it, BAD SCIENCE is “an essential read for anyone who has ever considered there might possibly be some benefit to critical thinking” and Professor Edzard Ernst in The Daily Mail, “You’ll be healthier for reading it”. Last week brought the first foreign rights deal for BAD SCIENCE, via Natalia Sanina of the Synopsis Agency in Moscow, who sold Russian rights to Exmo. And I’m now accepting the first European offer from the excellent German publisher, S. Fischer Verlag!
On Monday morning at 10 am my marathon of Frankfurt meetings begins!
