Two years ago Doug Pepper at Signal/McClelland & Stewart acquired Canadian rights to co-authors of The Big Shift Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s EMPTY PLANET: The Shock of Global Population Decline from John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists. The book was researched on six continents and predicts a surprising decline in the world’s population with major consequences for individual countries and for the planet as a whole, US rights have been sold to Emma Berry at Crown/Penguin Random House by John Pearce; UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada rights have been sold to Tom Asker at Robinson/Piatkus, Constable & Robinson/Little, Brown; Chinese rights to Beijing Huazhong; Japanese rights to Bungeishunju; and Korean rights to Eulyoo,. The UK and foreign sales were made by Carolyn Forde on behalf of John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists. EMPTY PLANET will be published simultaneously in Canada, the US and the UK, in February 2019.
Lara Hinchberger of Penguin Canada has acquired, in a two book deal, Canadian English rights to internationally bestselling women’s fiction author Karma Brown’s (Come Away With Me, The Choices We Make, In This Moment) first foray into the domestic noir genre; RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE. In which a reluctant, modern housewife, Alice, finds a cookbook buried in an old box in the basement of her new home and becomes captivated with the cookbook’s previous owner, a 1950s housewife, Nellie. Dissatisfied with her own life and losing her grip on reality one retro recipe at a time, Alice will decide—thanks to Nellie’s cookbook, the old house, and decades-long held secrets— how far she’s willing to go to get the life she wants. Penguin will publish RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE as a Viking title in February 2019. The deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists.
Editor-in-Chief of McClelland & Stewart and Doubleday Canada Martha Kanya-Forstner has acquired Canadian rights to two-time Giller Prize-winner M.G. Vassanji’s new novel, tentatively titled A DELHI OBSESSION, and a collection of short stories tentatively titled WHAT ARE YOU. A DELHI OBSESSION, brimming with emotional tension, tells the stories of Munir Khan and Mohini Singh as they begin a fraught, torrid affair despite their moral and political differences. Publication of the novel is planned for fall 2019. Bruce Westwood of Westwood Creative Artists arranged the deal.
Stacey Matson follows up her acclaimed, internationally-published Life of a Total Genius trilogy with a new standalone middle grade novel, THE CONFIDENTIAL COOPER FILE, about a boy who believes his grandfather, disappearing into Alzheimer’s, is actually the infamous – and never caught – hijacker DB Cooper, and sets out to prove it, to Anne Shone at Scholastic Canada for publication in fall 2019 (world excluding US) by Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists.
Swedish rights to Alice Kuipers bestselling YA/Adult crossover Life on the Refrigerator Door to En Bok for Alla, bring the number of territories sold to 31. The deal was arranged by Monique Oosterhof at Mo Literary Services in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Jackie Kaiser.
Simplified Chinese rights Alexandre Trudeau’s memoir Barbarian Lost: Travels in the New China have sold to China South Booky Culture Media Co. The deal was arranged by Andrew Nurnburg Associates International in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Michael A. Levine.
Korean rights to John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker’s EMPTY PLANET: THE SHOCK OF GLOBAL POPULATION DECLINE have sold to Eulyoo. The deal was arranged by Shin Won Literary Agency in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of John Pearce.
Russian rights to Sandra Gulland’s YA novel about the stepdaughter of Napolean Bonaparte, THE GAME OF HOPE, have sold to Arkadia. The deal was arranged by Synopsis Literary Agency in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists om behalf of Jackie Kaiser.
Simplified Chinese rights to Jay Ingram’s The Science of Why 2 (the follow up to his bestselling The Science of Why) have sold to Beijing Green Beans Book Company. The deal was arranged by Andrew Nurnberg Associates International in association with Carolyn Forde Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Jackie Kaiser.
World English audio rights to Governor General Award for Literary Fiction winner Joel Thomas Hynes’ We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night have been acquired by Audible. The deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists.
Award-winning author of Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages, Mark Abley’s WATCH YOUR TONGUE: WHAT OUR EVERYDAY PHRASES LITERALLY FIGURATIVELY MEAN, exploring the phrases, idioms, and clichés of our everyday language with remarkable wit and wisdom, to Brendan May at Simon & Schuster Canada, for publication in August 2018, by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists (North America).
Simon & Schuster Canada VP, Editorial Director Nita Pronovost has acquired Canadian rights to the next two books by BC author Roz Nay whose first book OUR LITTLE SECRET was praised by Ruth Ware, Mary Kubica, Chevy Stevens and Andrew Pyper. OUR LITTLE SECRET was a bestseller in Canada, an award winner in France, also sold Dutch, Polish and audio rights and will publish with St. Martin’s Press in the US in April 2018. The next two books, as yet untitled, are planned for publication in 2018 and 2019. The deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists.
Penguin Teen Canada publishing director, Lynne Missen, has acquired North American English rights to two forthcoming young adult novels from the Governor General’s Award-winning When Everything Feels Like the Movies author, Raziel Reid. The first of the two untitled books, KENS, is scheduled for September 2018, and is a modernized re-telling of the cult classic movie, Heathers, in which an unpopular gay kid, desperate to fit in, gets more than he bargained for when he reinvents himself – inside and out – and becomes an unknowing and submissive puppet in a sadistic plan. The deal was arranged by Michael Levine and Liz Culotti at Westwood Creative Artists.
Simon & Schuster Canada’s Vice President and Editorial Director Nita Pronovost has acquired North American English rights to Ruth Marshall’s debut book, a memoir entitled WALK IT OFF: The True and Hilarious Story of How I Learned to Stand, Walk, Pee, Run, and Have Sex Again After a Nightmarish Diagnosis Turned My Awesome Life Upside Down that follows the actress’ journey after she is diagnosed with a rare spinal tumor. Told with humor and searing honesty, this memoir not only entertains but inspires readers to put their best foot forward and walk off anything life throws their way. Publication is planned for January 2018. Bruce Westwood and Meg Wheeler of Westwood Creative Artists arranged the deal.
Deborah Willis at Freehand Books has acquired Canadian English rights to Michelle Kaeser’s literary novel TOWER OF BABYLON. Publication is planned for Fall 2019 and the deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists Ltd.
Alana Wilcox of Coach House has acquired World rights to Lezlie Lowe’s NO PLACE TO GO: Answering the Call of Nature in the Urban Jungle, an investigation into the politics of public restrooms. Publication is planned for Fall 2018 and the deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists Ltd.
Senior Editor at Grove Atlantic Corinna Barson has acquired World rights to Toronto-based writer and photographer John Zada’s IN THE VALLEYS OF THE NOBLE BEYOND: Travels in the Great Bear Rainforest in Search of the Sasquatch – a work of narrative non-fiction that braids threads of travel/adventure with Sasquatch lore. Publication is planned for Spring 2018, and the deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists Ltd.
Michael Holmes of ECW Press has acquired world English rights to THE VERY MARROW OF OUR BONES, by Christine Higdon. The debut novel tells the story of a fiddler named Lulu Parsons, whose life and attachments are irrevocably altered by the secret she has kept about her mother’s disappearance in the 1960s. Hilary McMahon of Westwood Creative Artists negotiated the deal, with publication slated for spring 2018.
Douglas Richmond at House of Anansi Press has acquired world rights to Jonathan Garfinkel’s THE ALTRUIST, a sophisticated and darkly funny post-Soviet thriller set between Toronto and Tbilisi, Georgia, during the pro-democracy Rose Revolution of 2003. Publication is slated for Spring 2019. The deal was arranged by John Pearce of Westwood Creative Artists.