Deals
The series, about two high school boys whose friendship
unexpectedly blossoms into romance, originally appeared
as a webcomic. After gaining traction, the series was for-
mally published in the U.K. by Hodder Children’s Books.
Under this deal, the first two titles are set to be released
in 2020. Susannah Palfrey at Hachette Children’s Group
(which is the parent of Hodder Children’s) negotiated the
agreement with Saylor and Fulton. (Claire Wilson at
RCW previously sold world rights to the series to Hodder
Children’s.)■ Grushin’s ‘Wife’ Goes to Putnam
For Putnam, Gabriella Mongelli took world rights to
Olga Grushin’s novel The Charmed Wife. The literary
work, which Warren Frazier at John Hawkins &
Associates sold, reimagines the fairy tale “Cinderella.”
The novel picks up 13 years after Cinderella has married
Prince Charming, at which point Cinderella is contem-
plating divorce. Putnam said the book is “reminiscent of
Madeline Miller’s Circe” and is “a darkly complex explo-
ration of romantic expectation and the very nature of
storytelling.” Grushin earned a place on Granta’s Best Young American
Novelists list for her 2006 debut, The Dream Life of Sukhanov (also published
by Putnam).■ Lit Agent Sells First Picture Book
Literary agent Stephen Barr sold his debut picture book,
at auction, to Chronicle. Taylor Norman bought world
rights, in a two-book deal, to The Upside Down Hat. The
book, to be illustrated by Gracey Zhang, is set for spring- Chronicle said the book follows a boy who discovers
that all of his things are gone save his hat, “which accom-
panies him on his search for everything else.” Barr was
represented by Elena Giovinazzo at Pippin Properties,
while Zhang was represented by Hannah Mann at Writers
House.
■ Stegner Fellow Sells Debut to LB
Little, Brown’s Ben George won North American rights to
Stephanie Soileau’s debut novel, Terre Bonne, at auction.
The two-book deal also includes a Louisiana-set short
story collection, Last One out Shut Off the Lights. George
described the novel, about the fictional Terrebonne clan,
as “an epic, fierce-hearted family saga in the vein of
Philipp Meyer’s The Son.” The collection is set to publish
first, in summer 2020. Soileau, who was represented by
Rebecca Gradinger at Fletcher & Company, is a former
Stegner fellow and an Iowa Writers Workshop graduate.History buffs and dedicated lis-
teners of Slow Burn can probably
tell you all about Martha
Mitchell. The wife of the attorney
general under President Nixon,
Mitchell is the subject of the first
episode of the popular Slate-
produced podcast about
Watergate. And now, thanks to
Slow Burn, a backlist book about
her will likely be made into a
movie.Winzola McLendon’s 1979
Martha: The Life of Martha
Mitchell has been optioned after
interest in Mitchell flared.
Stephen Moore at the Kohner
Agency handled the sale, working
on behalf of Penguin Random
House. (Random House originally
published the title.) Moore, who
is not yet able to disclose the
buyer, said that, thanks to the
podcast, there was a “sudden
flurry of interest in this old
book.” Moore added that there
were three bidders vying for the
title, which is now the foundation
of a film project “at one of the big
three agencies.”
The serendipitous nature of the
deal, Moore joked, got him think-
ing about going into podcasting;
he said he lightheartedly suggest-
ed to the agent he sold the project
to, “We should produce a podcast
about great backlist titles and
spur some interest in our list.”BEHIND THE DEAL
OsemanGrushinBarr©^
k a r e l
c u d l i n
©^ j e f f
p r a n t
SoileauWWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 9