The Favorite Son

In Library Journal's new Book Cheer column, "the true story of 12 library marketing directors reviewing one another's titles," Chris Vaccari of Sterling reads three books and chooses a favorite.

Mr. Vaccari obviously has exquisite literary taste, not only because he counts "anything by Dennis Lehane" among his all-time favorite books, but also because he chose THE POACHER'S SON as the winner in this match-up! He says, "I've never been to Maine, but now I feel like I have. Twigs were cracking underneath my feet as I settled in to read this one. Doiron creates great scenery to surround an impressive debut. Well done, sir."

(We still have an advance copy to give away, so don't be shy about writing in with the answer to last week's question!)

Friday Night Rights

ARLA's teammates have been on a hot streak these past two weeks!

First up at the plate, Atilla Turgut of the Akcali Copyright agency sold DOROTHY OF MANHATTAN, Adam Fawer's latest novel, to April Publishing in Turkey.

La Nouvelle Agence's Michele Kanonidis sold MOONLIGHT MILE, Dennis Lehane's forthcoming Patrick and Angie mystery (the sixth and final one), to Lehane’s longtime French publisher, Editions Rivages, while Naomi Colvin of Andrew Nurnberg Associates sold it to The House of Books, Lehane's devoted Dutch publisher.

German publishers Schreiber & Lesser stepped up to the plate with offers for publication in graphic form of both SHUTTER ISLAND and "Until Gwen," the short story by Dennis Lehane that begins, "Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen Dodge Neon with an eight ball in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the backseat," one of our favorite openings ever. Michele Kanonidis of La Nouvelle Agence and Sabine Pfannensteil-Wright of Andrew Nurnberg Associates fielded the offers and brought them home.

Cappelen Damm in Norway renewed rights to MYSTIC RIVER and SHUTTER ISLAND, thanks to Ulf Toregard of the Sane Toregard Agency.

Romanian, Slovenian, and Portuguese readers will get to know THE POACHER'S SON thanks to Reader's Digest. Paul Doiron's publisher, St. Martin's Press, handled those deals.

Putnam's Lance Fitzgerald made a deal with Piemme for Italian publication of NOWHERE TO RUN, and our co-agent Sarah Nundy completed the two-book deal with a contract for BLUE HEAVEN.

Good work, team! We'd pour a bucket of Gatorade on all of you if we could!

First Look At The Poacher's Son

This month, Paul Doiron is over on First Look, Barnes & Noble's book club, for an online discussion with a select group of readers who were given advance copies of THE POACHER'S SON. They read several chapters each week and then post their reactions, generating some pretty lively debates.

Charlie Spicer, his amazing editor at St. Martin's, is also on the site this week answering reader's questions. He has some very interesting things to say about his work on the book and the publishing process in general, so it's well worth a look!

If you're feeling sad that you'll have to wait until May to get your hands on the book, we do have one advance reader's copy to give away. We'll send it to the person who emails us at info(at)rittlit(dot)com with the best way to poach an egg!

The Man Beneath The Black Hat

Wyofile has a great in-depth profile of ARLA author and all-around nice guy C.J. Box. Click here to find out how he got his start as a writer, what "C.J." stands for, why he responds to every single letter from his readers (even the grumpy ones), and much more!

Friday Night Rights

ARLA's agents across the universe have been working around the clock to spread the word of great books in more languages than we can count -- even Canadian! Here's what they've done in 2010 alone:

C.J. Box's Edgar Award-winning standalone, BLUE HEAVEN, has been sold by Aleksandra Matuszak of ANAW in Poland to Wydawnictwo Albatros Andrzej Kurylowicz, while Miko Yamanouchi of Japan Uni sold THREE WEEKS TO SAY GOODBYE (his second standalone) to Hayakawa in Japan. Ulf Toregard of the Sane Toregard agency sold both of those books to Klim in Denmark, along with Chuck's forthcoming standalone, BACK OF BEYOND (St. Martin's Press 2011).

Dennis Lehane's SHUTTER ISLAND (cf. the #1 box office hit!) has new deals all over the place! Ulf Toregard sold it to Lindhardt & Ringhof in Denmark, while Atilla Turgut of the Akcali Copyright Agency sold it to Artemis Yayinlari in Turkey, Ludmilla Sushkova of Andrew Nurnberg Associates Moscow sold it to Atticus in Russia, and Kristine Supe of Andrew Nurnberg's Baltic office sold it to Carobna Knjiga in Serbia. Daniela Petracco of Andrew Nurnberg Associates sold it to Edizioni BD in Italy, while Michele Kanonidis of La Nouvelle Agence sold the graphic novel to Compupress in Greece (don't mention the Euro!).

Laura Whitcomb's award-winning novel A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT will be published in Turkey by Bilge Kultur Sanat thanks to Atilla Turgut. Shari Smiley of Creative Artists Agency also optioned film rights to producer Kristin Hahn.

Brazilians and Germans will NEVER WAVE GOODBYE again after reading the forthcoming novel by Doug Magee, thanks to Sextante and Aufbau, respectively. Daniela Petracco and fellow Nurnberger Sabine Pfannensteil-Wright oversaw those deals. Touchstone, a division of Simon and Schuster, will publish in the U.S. this June.

ARLA's own Penn Whaling has sold May-lee Chai's DRAGON CHICA to Gemma Media, a Boston publishing house, and her client Doug Harris's YOU COMMA IDIOT (aka BEST TITLE EVER) will be published by Goose Lane Editions in Canada.

Yeehaw!