Category: Deals

UC Davis law professor and former Supreme Court clerk for Justice Sonia Sotomayor Aaron Tang‘s Supreme Humility: The Least Harm Principle and the Supreme Court’s Last Chance to Save Itself, which confronts the seemingly intractable partisan battles at the intersection of law, politics, and U.S. history with a groundbreaking analysis of an emerging legal approach – which he has named the “least harm principle” – that is already yielding court rulings that cut across traditional ideological lines, to William Frucht at Yale University Press.

Visual thinking guru and internationally bestselling author of The Back of the Napkin, Show & Tell, Draw to Win and other books Dan Roam‘s The Pop-Up Pitch: The Two-Hour Creative Sprint to the Most Persuasive Presentation of Your Life, combining the three key elements of persuasive storytelling with his unique visual storytelling approach, to help any presenter capture their audience and have major impact, at auction in a very nice deal, to Colleen Lawrie at Hachette/Public Affairs.

RAND Corporation behavioral scientist, University of Pittsburgh psychologist, and leading authority on sleep issues for couples Wendy Troxel Ph.D.’s Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep, sharing stories from a wide range of couples who struggled with a variety of sleeping challenges, as well as science-backed solutions to help couples sleep better together or apart and reap the relationship and overall health benefits that come from healthy sleep, at auction, to Dan Ambrosio at Hachette Go.

Vox political reporter Sean Illing, Ph.D., and media scholar Zac Gershberg, Ph.D.’s The Paradox of Democracy: New Media and the Eternal Problems of Politics, explaining how novel forms of communication paradoxically yet almost invariably threaten to overwhelm democracy from the inside, following the historical thread from Greek rhetorical forms, to 19th Century print news, to 20th Century cinema and broadcast media, to the latest Internet platforms, showing how each of these mediums came to threaten the democracies in which they arose, to Charles Myers at the University of Chicago Press.

Business strategy consultant and author of The Membership Economy, Robbie Kellman Baxter‘s The Forever Transaction: Rethinking your Business Model So Customers Never Want to Leave, going beyond the stories of subscription natives like Netflix, LinkedIn and Spotify to teach the full range of business models that companies can explore and apply, providing guidance on how to start, scale, and sustain long-term, disruption-proof customer relationships in a world of changing customer expectations, competitive conditions, and pushback from colleagues, in a very nice deal, again to Donya Dickerson at McGraw-Hill.

Economic historian and author of The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller, The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, and An Extraordinary Time, Marc Levinson’s Small World: A Brief History of Globalization, the first book for general readers exploring the international flow of goods, people, money, and ideas from ancient Assyrian caravans to the current battles over sea lanes and import duties, investigating what the future may bring for global trade and tensions, at auction to Joe Jackson at Princeton University Press, in a very good deal.

New York Times-bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon‘s How to Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative, a guide to staying true to your own creative vision when the world seems out of control, by establishing a sustainable daily practice, reclaiming your time and attention, and doing work that helps make a world worth living in, in a major deal, again to Bruce Tracy at Workman.

Author of Inside Steve’s Brain and Jony Ive, tech journalist and CultOfMac.com editor & publisher Leander Kahney’s Tim Cook, his third book about Apple’s great leaders, the story of how Cook embraced the impossible job of Apple CEO in the wake of Steve Job’s death, and leveraged his skills in global logistics and corporate management to turn Apple into the biggest company in global history, to Niki Papadopoulos at Penguin Random House/Portfolio, in a significant deal.

National magazine columnist Brad Stulberg and University of Houston running coach Steve Magness, authors of Peak Performance, have sold their next book, Obsessed, a science-backed guide to cultivating, harnessing, and getting the most out of one’s passions, again to Mark Weinstein at Rodale, in a very good deal.

Stanford health psychologist and international bestselling author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress Kelly McGonigal Ph.D.’s next book explores the new science behind exercise, showing why and how a vigorous workout improves every aspect of our well-being (from happiness to social connection), and has stronger mood boosting effects than Prozac or therapy, offering a more joyful, effective, and sustainable approach to exercise and personal health, again to Megan Newman at Penguin Random House/Avery, in a major deal.

Artist and author of The Crossroads of Should and Must, Elle Luna, and educator Susie Herrick‘s Your Story is Your Power, an illustrated guide for women, both practical and inspirational, to personal growth and public activism, again to Mary Ellen O’Neill at Workman, in a very good deal.

Designer, illustrator, and creator of www.dictionarystories.com, Jez Burrows’ Dictionary Stories, a touching, charming illustrated collection of very very short stories (love, horror, noir, and more) composed entirely with example sentences from various dictionaries, to Hannah Robinson at Harper Perennial.

Stanford mathematician and NPR’s “Math Guy,” Keith Devlin‘s Finding Fibonacci, telling the tale of his ten-year detective project to uncover and present the life story (in his previous book The Man of Numbers) of medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa (popularly known today as Fibonacci), whose 1202 book ‘Liber abbaci‘ quite literally changed the world, and the parallels with Devlin’s own passion to make the tools of mathematics accessible to ordinary people, to Vickie Kearn at Princeton University Press, on an exclusive submission.

Leader of the emerging on-demand hiring movement, and recruiting consultant to major enterprises including Bank of America, Boeing, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, and Wells Fargo, Scott Wintrip’s High Velocity Hiring, presenting his innovative, proven methodology that is fundamentally changing the way recruiting is done, offering business leaders in any organization a proven, actionable program to identify, cultivate, and hire the very best candidates to fill key jobs the instant they open, to Donya Dickerson at McGraw-Hill.

Journalist and health programs expert Brad Stulberg and University of Houston running coach Steve Magness’s Peak Performance: Take Advantage of the New Science of Success, presenting the emerging scientific understanding of the neurochemistry and cognitive principles driving great performance in athletic, intellectual, artistic, and other arenas, along with in-depth examples of top performers across a range of fields, showing readers how to optimize their own personal performance, in a very nice deal to Mark Weinstein at Rodale.

Personal wealth advisor and money manager Jonathan DeYoe’s Mindful Money: Simple Practices to Increase Your Happiness Dividend, with a foreword by one of his clients, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, a financial self-help book rooted in the proven benefits of mindfulness, helping readers understand their illusions about money and develop a values-based financial plan that takes advantage of their own spiritual and emotional strengths, to Georgia Hughes at New World Library.

Co-directors of the Ford, Citibank and Omidyar foundation-backed “U.S. Financial Diaries” project, NYU economist and co-author of current Facebook “A Year of Books” pick Portfolios of the Poor Jonathan Morduch, and Center for Financial Services Innovation SVP Rachel Schneider’s Out of Sync: Income, Cash Flow, and the Future of Working America, revealing how households cope with the hidden, vital factor of income volatility and offering policy changes and private sector innovations to address these challenges, to Seth Ditchik at Princeton University Press in a very nice deal after a multi-day auction.

Cartoonist and author of Indexed, How to be Interesting and The Art of War Visualized, Jessica Hagy and I Love Charts creator and producer Jason Oberholtzer‘s The Hustle Economy, with essays and illustrations offering career advice from some of the most dynamic and successful young writers, artists, designers, directors, creatives, hustlers, and media personalities, with a combined audience of more than 2 million social media followers, who have managed to thrive in the “gig economy,” in a very nice deal to Jordana Tusman at Running Press.

Stanford health psychologist, TED Global speaker, and internationally bestselling author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress, Kelly McGonigal Ph.D.’s The Power of Compassion, an original audio program on the methods and benefits of developing compassion, based in part on her work at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), to Jennifer Brown at Sounds True.

Visual thinking guru and author of The Back of the Napkin and Show & Tell Dan Roam‘s Draw Me the Money, extending the techniques in his earlier books to create a concise guide that walks readers step-by-step through the Ten Commandments of business visualization and introduces the Ten Tools for creating pictures that make a difference, again to Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio/Penguin Random House in a significant deal.

One of the world’s leading young economists Joshua Gans‘ Disruption, synthesizing Clayton Christensen’s legendary business theory with two decades of more recent research and insights to yield important new lessons for companies of every scale, showing how and why all incumbents are at risk of being disrupted and what they must do to shield themselves successfully, to Emily Taber at MIT Press.

Author of Newspaper Blackout and the New York Times bestsellers Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon‘s Steal Like an Artist Journal: A Notebook for Creative Kleptomaniacs, a guided creativity journal with exercises, inspirational quotes, prompts, and blank pages for writing down and sketching out new (and lifted) ideas, in a good deal, again to Bruce Tracy at Workman Publishing.

Leading American Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal’s first-ever translation of the The Book of Eights (Atthakavagga), one of the earliest Buddhist discourses, which provides a foundation of teachings that does not rely on any supernatural beliefs, in a nice deal to Dave O’Neal at Shambhala.

Artist, designer and writer Elle Luna‘s The Crossroads of Should and Must, a deeply personal and universally inspiring call to pursue one’s true path, building on her online post of the same title that went viral (over a quarter million visitors, and public praise from several Twitter founders and many more tech and creativity luminaries), in a very good deal after a crowded auction, to Bruce Tracy at Workman Publishing.

Legendary American Buddhist teacher Leigh Brasington‘s Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas, the first book to offer a comprehensive guide to reaching each of the meditative concentration states as taught by the Buddha himself, in a nice deal to Dave O’Neal at Shambhala.

Cartoonist and author of Indexed and How to be Interesting Jessica Hagy‘s newly illustrated edition of The Art of War Visualized, illuminating Sun Tzu’s 2,500-year old text not only as manual of strategy for warriors and leaders but also as a guide for personal empowerment — in her signature thought-provoking visual style, in a very nice deal to Bruce Tracy at Workman Publishing.

Business strategy consultant Robbie Kellman Baxter‘s The Membership Economy: Moving Your Business Model From Ownership to Access, based on more than a decade advising major corporations including eBay/PayPal, Netflix, Oracle and many others on their subscription-based business models, offering specific frameworks and tactics to help reinvent any kind of business into one where customers are evangelists, revenues are predictable and smooth, and sales, retention and acquisition run on a virtuous cycle, in a nice deal to Donya Dickerson and Mary Glenn at McGraw-Hill.

Economic historian and author of The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America and The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, Marc Levinson‘s untitled look at the political and economic world in 1973, examining the many global trend lines that shifted in the early 1970s and how those shifts reverberate well into the present day, at auction in a good deal, to Alex Littlefield at Basic Books.

Stanford health psychologist, TED Global speaker, and international bestselling author of The Willpower Instinct Kelly McGonigal Ph.D.’s The Upside of Stress, teaching how mastering and using stress is actually the key to our well-being, in a major deal, again to Megan Newman at Avery/Penguin.

Austin Center for Design Director Jon Kolko‘s Well-Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love, demonstrating his proven method for using design thinking to guide the entire product strategy process and create powerful, emotionally resonant offerings, at auction in a very nice deal, to Jeff Kehoe at Harvard Business Review Press.

New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist Austin Kleon‘s Show Your Work! How to Share What You Do With the World, teaching how to think about your work (art, business, anything!) as a never-ending process, build meaningful relationships by sharing that process, deal with the ups and downs of putting your work out in the world, and influence others by letting them steal from you, in a significant deal, again to Bruce Tracy at Workman Publishing.

All-American mom, Zen Buddhist priest, and author of Momma Zen and Hand Wash Cold Karen Maezen Miller‘s Paradise in Plain Sight: The Way of the Zen Gardener, using the lessons she learned from owning and tending Southern California’s oldest private Japanese garden to illustrate how a seeker becomes a sage, and showing readers how to cultivate the ground beneath their own feet, in a nice deal, again to Georgia Hughes at New World Library.

Bible Belt atheist-turned-spiritual seeker, religious blogger, and subject of the reality TV show “Minor Revisions,” Jennifer Fulwiler‘s Something Other Than God, a memoir about her conversion to Catholicism, at auction in a very nice deal, to Mark Brumley at Ignatius Press.

Visual thinking guru and author of The Back of the Napkin and Blah Blah Blah Dan Roam‘s Show & Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, teaching readers how to use his unique visual thinking tools and techniques to increase business and personal success, in a significant deal, again to Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio/Penguin.

Noted finance and investing blogger, frequently featured on leading finance sites including Abnormal Returns, Business Insider, FT Alphaville and Ritholtz.com, Tim Richards‘ Investing Psychology, on behavioral bias and investing psychology, at auction to Laura Walsh at Wiley.

Tumblr sensation Joakim Christofferson‘s Nano Workouts: Get in Shape and Lose Weight During Everyday Activities , a fun, clever illustrated book showing how idle moments and everyday activities can be transformed into quick, easy workout opportunities, to Keith Riegert at Ulysses Press.

Author of the NYT bestseller Inside Steve’s Brain and The Cult of Mac Leander Kahney‘s Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, presenting the biography, philosophy and methodology of the most celebrated and secretive industrial designer in the world, revealing how he designs Apple’s products and fosters a culture of innovation, in a significant deal to Brooke Carey at Portfolio/Penguin.

Whimsical cartoonist, Smithsonian and Forbes visual blogger, and author of Indexed Jessica Hagy‘s How to be Interesting: You Don’t Have to be Wealthy to Lead a Rich Life, a funny, thought-provoking guide to finding one’s personal route through life, based on her Forbes column that has already been viewed on-line nearly a million times and shared on Facebook and Twitter over 50,000 times, at auction in a very nice deal to Bruce Tracy at Workman Publishing.

One of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” co-author of Gamestorming, and presenter of one of the 50 most viewed TED Talks, visual thinking and creativity consultant Sunni Brown‘s The Doodle Revolution, a guide to help even the most non-visual person use the power of the pen to clarify and visualize complex concepts, solve business problems faster and elevate cognitive performance, at auction in a significant deal to Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio/Penguin.

Writer, artist and creator of Newspaper Blackout Austin Kleon‘s Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told Me About The Creative Life, based on his speech to art students that became a viral sensation on-line with more than 1.2 million pageviews, at auction in a very nice deal to Bruce Tracy at Workman Publishing.

Culture journalist Mark Cohen‘s Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, the first full-length biography of one of America’s greatest comedians, a coarse voice singing off-key about seltzer, the garment industry, and why being a knight wasn’t really so great (aluminum pants), for publication in time for the 50th anniversary of Sherman’s greatest hit, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,” to Stephen Hull at the University Press of New England.

Former Microsoft executive, fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and author of More Than Human Ramez Naam‘s The Infinite Resource, arguing that the most valuable resource on earth is our capacity for expanding human knowledge and exploring mankind’s past leaps in understanding to find the keys to overcoming the enormous challenges we face today, to Stephen Hull at the University Press of New England.

CUNY/Hunter College professor Andrew J. Polsky, Ph.D.‘s Elusive Victory: Why Presidents Fail at War, a penetrating work of history and political analysis examining the multiple dimensions of wartime presidential leadership and making the insightful, surprising argument that American presidents have repeatedly failed as wartime leaders, to Tim Bent at Oxford University Press.

“Senior Fake Scientist” Phil Edwards‘ Fake Science 101: For When the Facts Are Too Confusing, based on his popular Fake Science blog, a faux textbook covering everything the average person should pretend to know, providing a laugh-out-loud tour of all the subjects you cheated on in school, to Brendan O’Neill at Adams Media.

Executive Director of the Institute for the Future Marina Gorbis‘ The Nature of the Future, explaining the new organizational landscape and offering a practical roadmap for the transition from the era of hierarchies to the era of networks, at auction in a good deal to Emily Loose at Free Press/Simon & Schuster.

Strategy consultant, visual thinking guru and author of The Back of the Napkin and Unfolding the Napkin Dan Roam‘s Blah Blah Blah: What to Do When Words Don’t Work, explaining why it is essential to use both visual AND verbal thinking to understand and communicate ideas in business, politics and life, and presenting his unique, groundbreaking toolkit for Visual-Verbal Interdependent Thinking, in a significant deal, again to Adrian Zackheim and Courtney Young at Portfolio/Penguin.

Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School Paul Epstein M.D. and science journalist Dan Ferber‘s Changing Planet, Changing Health, examining the full range of global warming’s damaging health effects and proposing a comprehensive array of innovative measures to ease them, to Hannah Love at the University of California Press.

Historian and former Landmarks Preservation Commission staffer Anthony Robins‘s Guidebook to Art Deco New York, an illustrated guide with step-by-step tours of New York City’s lovingly restored Art Deco architectural treasures, based on the author’s popular lectures and walking tours, to James Peltz at SUNY Press.

Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.’s, The Willpower Instinct, based on her wildly popular course and Psychology Today blog of the same name, explaining the new science of self-control that is emerging from psychology, neuroscience, medicine and economics to shatter long-standing myths and help readers create environments that boost their willpower and master practical strategies for self-control without suffering, at auction in a significant deal to Rachel Holtzman at Avery/Penguin.

Air Force interrogator, Bronze Star Medal winner and author of How to Break a Terrorist Matthew Alexander’s Kill or Capture, a true-life thriller that tells the story of his breathless, “outside the wire” pursuit of the notorious mass murderer behind Al Qaeda in Iraq’s suicide bombing campaign, to Marc Resnick at St. Martin’s Press.

National journalist Peter Savodnik‘s The Interloper: Lee Harvey Oswald Inside The Soviet Union, a compelling, carefully reported historical account of Oswald’s two-and-a-half years seeking asylum in the Soviet Union, demonstrating that his experience reflected powerful emotional and political currents already coursing through the American consciousness, to Lara Heimert at Basic Books.

Stanford mathematician and NPR’s “Math Guy” Keith Devlin‘s The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci’s Arithmetic Revolution, the great untold story of how a 12th Century Italian mathematician brought Arabic numbers to the West, triggering revolutions in everything from banking to the age of exploration to architecture, at auction to George Gibson at Bloomsbury USA.

Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Marc Levinson‘s The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, an insightful look at the birth of mega-retailing and the modern consumer economy, by the author of The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, at auction to Thomas LeBien at Hill & Wang/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Leading sales consultant Richard Schroder‘s From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call, with a foreword by Stephan Schiffman, presenting his innovative win/loss analysis and training program for salespeople to gather meaningful feedback and learn from lost opportunities so next time they close the sale, used by Fidelity, ADP, Schwab and many others, to Donya Dickerson at McGraw-Hill.

Christian Science Monitor reporter Matt Shaer‘s Among Righteous Men: A Tale of Vigilantes and Vindication in Hasidic Crown Heights, an unflinching account of the bitter, on-going feud in Crown Heights between two rival Hasidic vigilante groups, to Eric Nelson at John Wiley & Sons.

All-American mom, Zen Buddhist priest and author of Momma Zen Karen Maezen Miller‘s Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life, an inspirational guide to practical spirituality for anyone seeking transformative insights in the midst of his or her everyday life, to Georgia Hughes at New World Library.

Jennifer “Kasey Bomber” Barbee and NPR host Alex “Axles of Evil” Cohen’s Down & Derby: The Insider’s Guide To Roller Derby, an illustrated celebration of the history and recent resurgence of the explosive sport, to Denise Oswald in her first acquisition as Editorial Director at Soft Skull Press/Counterpoint.

Technology and policy analyst Sonia Arrison‘s 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith, with a foreword by PayPal founder and longevity research philanthropist Peter Thiel, exploring the implications of our increasing lifespans — and healthspans — and explaining how nearly every aspect of our financial, family, religious, and environmental outlooks will need reshaping, in a pre-empt to Amanda Moon at Basic Books.

Hewlett-Packard economist Kay-Yut Chen and science journalist Marina Krakovsky‘s Secrets of the Moneylab: Lab-Tested Wisdom from the New Science of Business, with a foreword by Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof, explaining the practical implications of behavioral economics and offering useful, real-world lessons such as how to deal with irrationality in ourselves and others, use incentives to manage risk and predict the unpredictable, and overcome all-or-nothing thinking, in a two-day auction to David Moldawer at Portfolio/Penguin.

Geographer and artist Trevor Paglen‘s Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes, with a forward by Rebecca Solnit, his long-awaited first photographic monograph, to Aperture.

Professional investment advisor and finance commentator Charles Farrell‘s Your Money Ratios: The Eight Essential Tools for Financial Success, for the first time applying the business concept of key accounting ratios to personal finance and creating eight unique “personal finance ratios” to fundamentally change how individuals manage their financial lives and move them from laborer to capitalist, to Megan Newman at Avery/Penguin.

USA Today editorial board member Richard Whitmire’s Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That’s Leaving Them Behind, expanding his recent article in The New Republic, a provocative investigation of the crisis in boys’ education and their downward spiral of worsening school performance, diminishing college prospects and reduced career opportunities, questioning the conventional wisdom, identifying the core reasons for this decline, and offering solutions that are already working in several schools around the country, to AMACOM.

Strategy consultant, visual thinking guru and author of The Back of the Napkin Dan Roam‘s Unfolding the Napkin, a workbook providing hands-on lessons, case-studies and detailed examples to put into practice his unique approach to visual problem solving, again to Branda Maholtz and Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio/Penguin.

Former tech CEO, venture capitalist, founder of finance community site itulip.com, and author of the prescient Harper’s Magazine February cover article “The Next Bubble: Priming the markets for tomorrow’s big crash,” Eric Janszen‘s The Postcatastrophe Economy: Rebuilding America and Avoiding the Next Bubble, explaining the roots and complexities of the current financial and economic crisis and the fundamental restructuring that is the only hope to restore our economic strength, in a major pre-empt on the eve of a crowded auction to Adrian Zackheim and Tim Sullivan at Portfolio/Penguin.

Lawyer Boy author Rick Lax’s Las Vegas memoir Fool Me Once, an investigation into the meaning of honesty and deception, from discussing epistemology with his philosophy professor to ingratiating himself with the impersonators and illusionists who populate America’s Sin City, all to find out if his own life is just one big lie, again to David Moldawer at St. Martin’s Press.

Professors of Oriental Medicine Yuan Wang and Warren Sheir and health writer Mika Ono’s Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen: Recipes from the East for Health, Healing and Long Life, bringing ancient Asian practices of cooking with healing herbs and other therapeutic foods to Western palates and kitchens, at auction to Renée Sedliar at Da Capo Lifelong Books/Perseus.

Serial “green” entrepreneur Scott Cooney’s Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur, a comprehensive how-to guide for seasoned entrepreneurs moving into sustainable commerce as well as environmentally concerned young people starting their first business, including scores of green business ideas and essential tips on getting started, at auction to Lauren Lynch at McGraw-Hill.

Film rights to Pulitzer-finalists Steve Suo and Erin Hoover Barnett’s Drug of Choice, based on their Oregonian newspaper series on the meth epidemic, intertwining stories of a DEA bureaucrat’s solitary attempt to halt the spread of meth, the pharma lobbyists and politicians who undermined his effort, the traffickers who continue to feed this global problem, and the impact on one family that has lived out the consequences, to HBO for Michael DeLuca Productions.

Personal branding expert Peter Montoya and Tim Vandehey’s The Brand Called You, originally self-published to sales of more than 65,000 copies worldwide, with a revised and expanded four-step Personal Branding program for self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs, at auction to Lauren Lynch at McGraw-Hill.

Reno, Nevada schoolteacher Tierney Cahill and Linden Gross’ Ms. Cahill for Congress, the inspirational story of a teacher and single mother who ran for Congress on a dare from her sixth grade students and won the primary election (the basis for the forthcoming movie “Class Act” starring Halle Berry), in a three-day auction to Julia Cheiffetz at Ballantine/Random House.

Stanford mathematician and NPR’s “Math Guy,” Keith Devlin, Ph.D.’s The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern, about the 1654 letter from French mathematician Blaise Pascal to his colleague and countryman Pierre De Fermat, which outlined the basic principles of probability theory and would forever change business, politics, warfare, science, engineering, medicine, sport, and many other aspects of everyday life, in a pre-empt to Bill Frucht at Basic Books.

Former L.A. Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Kristina Sauerwein’s Invisible Chains: Shawn Hornbeck and the Kidnapping Case that Shook the Nation, the intertwined stories of kidnapper Michael Devlin, Shawn Hornbeck, the boy he kept captive in plain sight for four years, and Ben Ownby, whose brief kidnapping this year led to Devlin’s capture, including analysis of the psychological and sociological influences that compelled Hornbeck to avoid rescue, to Ronnie Gramazio at Lyons Press.

Chef Laura Stec and San Jose State University meteorology professor Eugene Cordero Ph.D.’s Cool Cuisine: Taking The Bite Out of Global Warming, mixing scientific fact and culinary art to help home cooks make smart food choices in key areas that effect climate change, in a pre-empt to Gibbs Smith at Gibbs Smith Publishers.

Geographer and artist Trevor Paglen‘s Blank Spots on the Map: State Secrets, Hidden Landscapes, and the Pentagon’s Black World, a globe trotting investigation of the Black Empire of secrecy run by the U.S. military, other agencies and private companies, tracing its growth from the Manhattan Project through the current War on Terror, interviewing people inside these blank patches of Google Earth, and showing how it threatens the democracy it purports to defend, in a pre-empt to Stephen Morrow at Dutton/Penguin.

Internet sensation Jessica Hagy‘s whimsical, insightful graphs, charts, and diagrams of everyday life, Indexed: Cramming Life Into Neat Little Boxes, in a pre-empt to Jeff Galas at Viking Studio/Penguin.

The first two 826 Valencia Guides on Writing Memoir and Writing Fiction, edited by Jenny Traig, with an introduction by Dave Eggers, and featuring contributions from Anthony Swofford, Caroline Kraus, Elizabeth Gilbert, James McManus, Jonathan Ames, Paul Collins, Phillip Lopate, Rebecca Walker, Rich Cohen, Steve Almond, Tobias Wolff and many more, at auction in a very good deal to Sarah Knight at Henry Holt & Co.

Credit repair expert and frequent TV personal finance commentator Erica Sandberg’s Expecting Money: The Before-Baby Financial Guide for New Families, the first complete money manual written exclusively for parents-to-be, to Shannon Berning at Kaplan Publishing.

Reinhard Engels’ The No S Diet: The Strikingly Simple Weight-Loss Strategy That Has Dieters Raving–and Dropping Pounds, written with Ben Kallen, presenting his folksy, practical and effective new weight loss method, in a pre-empt to Marian Lizzi at Perigee/Penguin.

The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crimes with Mathematics, the official companion book to the hit prime-time TV crime series NUMB3RS, by acclaimed popular mathematics writer Keith Devlin (known to millions of NPR listeners as “The Math Guy” on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon) and Gary Lorden (chairman of the Caltech mathematics department and the principal math advisor to the TV show), explaining the actual mathematical techniques used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to catch and convict criminals, at auction to David Cashion at Plume/Penguin, and Japanese rights to Diamond.

Author of The Cult of Mac and Wired News Managing Editor Leander Kahney‘s Inside Steve’s Brain: the Leadership Secrets of Steve Jobs, an unauthorized look at Steve Jobs’ principles for building killer products, attracting fanatically loyal customers and managing some of the world’s most powerful brands, showing readers how to be a better leader, manager and entrepreneur, at auction to Adrian Zackheim Portfolio/Penguin. Japanese rights to Random House Kodansha, complex Chinese rights to Cite Publishing, simple Chinese rights to Renmin University Press, Brazilian rights to Ediouro, and German rights to Finanzbuch Verlag.

A.C. Kemp’s The Perfect Insult for Every Occasion, a brassy, sophisticated anti-etiquette guide, written with the poisoned pen of a pampered, high society grande dame with anecdotes to share and axes to grind, an arch commentary on language and a foul-mouthed parody of etiquette books, to Jennifer Kushnier at Adams Media.

Strategy consultant and visual thinking guru Dan Roam‘s The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems with Pictures, offering unique creativity and visual thinking tools to help readers develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and dramatically improve their ability to share their insights with others, at auction to Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio/Penguin.

Film and television rights to Bob Welch’s American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy, to Sal Chala at Relentless Entertainment.

University of Michigan medical researchers Gary Huffnagle, Ph.D., and Mairi Noverr, Ph.D., with bestselling health writer Sarah Wernick’s The Probiotics Revolution: Using Beneficial Bacteria to Fight Inflammation and Chronic Disease – and Live a Longer, Healthier Life, offering the latest scientific information about probiotics along with comprehensive guidance on how to include them as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle, at auction in a six-figure deal to Toni Burbank at Bantam/Random House. Dutch rights to Thoeris in a pre-empt, via Internationaal Literatuur Bureau B.V. and mainland Chinese rights to Thinkingdom Media Group, via Big Apple Agency.

Jack-of-all-trades James Rogauskas’ Office Haiku, the first book to tackle the absurdities of the modern workplace in poetry, in the tradition of the Dilbert empire and books like Haikus for Jews and Cat Haiku, to John Parsley at Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press.

Science journalist Susan Freinkel’s American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, examining the questions “What happens when a species vanishes? Once gone, can it be brought back?” and showing how the death and potential rebirth of this once grand tree continues to reflect, as well as shape, our relationship to nature, to Blake Edgar at University of California Press.

Chuck Acquisto’s Wisdom to Grow On, a touching and inspirational collection of letters of advice to a young boy from a wide range of famous individuals, including sports legends, U.S. Presidents, beloved entertainers and more (including many handwritten letters and works of art), at auction to Jennifer Kasius at Running Press/Perseus. The author’s proceeds will be donated to The Good Tidings Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity that awards service scholarships to underprivileged students.

All-American mom and Zen Buddhist priest Karen Maezen Miller‘s Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood, an intimate and inspiring guide to the Zen wisdom found in the everyday lessons of early motherhood, at auction to Eden Steinberg at Shambhala.

Linguist Craig Conley’s One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, a surprising and fascinating compendium of 1,000+ definitions of the 26 letters of the alphabet and an essential desk companion for puzzle lovers, wordsmiths, trivia buffs, know-it-alls, armchair linguists and all kinds of word lovers, in an aggressive pre-empt to Alison Callahan at HarperCollins.

Stanford professor, author of 21 books including The Millennium Problems and The Math Gene, and best known as “The Math Guy” on NPR Weekend Edition Keith Devlin‘s The Math Instinct: The Amazing Mathematical Abilities of Animals and All of Us,celebrating every species’ innate math sense and giving even the most number-phobic readers greater confidence in their own mathematical abilities, at auction to John Oakes at Thunder’s Mouth Press/Avalon Publishing as the lead title for their Spring 2005 list.

Oprah-blurbed Zen teacher and author of The Parent’s Tao Te Ching, The Sage’s Tao Te Ching, and The Couple’s Tao Te Ching William Martin’s A Path and A Practice, an innovative new translation of the Tao revealing it as not just a collection of wise insights but as a cohesive guide to our spiritual path, to Matthew Lore at Marlowe & Co./Avalon Publishing.

Michigan State American Studies professor and author of Decade of Disaster Ann Larabee Ph.D’s The Dynamite Fiend: The Chilling Tale of a Confederate Spy, Con Artist, and Mass Murderer, a historical true crime story about a former Confederate secret service agent who later went on to terrorize the Atlantic shipping lanes and caused one of the bloodiest catastrophes of the nineteenth century, to Brendan O’Malley at Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press (U.S.) and Dan Soucoup at Nimbus (Canada).

Author of four novels, editor of the new anthology Politically Inspired, and McSweeney’s poker columnist Stephen Elliott’s Looking Forward to It: An Inside Account From the Outside of the 2004 Presidential Election, a kaleidoscopic “new new journalism” look at the presidential race (part “on the bus” and part “in the car”), building on his campaign articles in The Believer and Newsday, to Josh Kendall at Picador USA/St. Martin’s Press.

Reason Magazine science correspondent Ron Bailey’s Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution, making the case that biogenetic research and the powerful new technologies it engenders should be encouraged and embraced, not feared and resisted, for the future well-being of humanity and our planet, to Steven Mitchell at Prometheus Books.

Investigative journalist Nena Baker’s The Body Toxic, the first comprehensive look at the toxins that permeate the environment and each of us – and what we can do about them – to Denise Oswald at North Point Press/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

TV interior design guru (14 year veteran of HGTV, Oprah and ABC-TV’s “The Home Show”) Kitty Bartholomew and journalist Kathy Price-Robinson’s Kitty Bartholomew’s Decorating ABC’s: Affordable, Beautiful and Comfortable Decor for Real People Living With Real Budgets, in a good deal to Ellen Phillips at Rodale Books.

Technologist Ramez Naam’s More Than Human: How Biotechnology Is Transforming Us and Why We Should Embrace It, a popular science book that takes readers into the biotech labs that are perfecting controversial technologies that give us the power to transform the human race – from cloning and genetic engineering to life-extension techniques and brain-computer interfaces – and offers the provocative thesis that we should embrace these advances instead of fearing them, at auction to Becky Cole at Broadway Books/Random House.

Dermatologist Adnan Nasir M.D., Ph.D. and journalist Priscilla Burgess’s Eczema-Free for Life: The Complete Guide to Controlling Eczema, reflecting the latest research on eczema’s underlying genetic causes, debunking myths such as the effect of diet on the malady, and offering new techniques to help sufferers, to Megan Newman and Nick Darrell at HarperCollins.

Medical ethicist, professor of health policy at Trinity College, and leading transhumanist thinker James Hughes Ph.D.’s Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond To The Redesigned Human Of The Future, a groundbreaking work of social and political commentary challenging both the “bioLuddism” of conservatives such as Leon Kass and Francis Fukuyama and the libertarian enthusiasm for unbridled human enhancement, to Karl Yambert at Westview Press/Perseus.

Data and security expert (and author of four patents for information-gathering technology) Amanda Welsh Ph.D.’s Identity Theft Protection Guide, a comprehensive consumer guide to help families guard themselves against identity theft and protect their computer security and personal privacy in the information age, to Ethan Friedman at St. Martin’s Press.

Shape Magazine columnist Courtney Rubin’s The Weight-Loss Diaries, a memoir of her daily struggles with weight, the challenges and triumphs of taking up marathon running, and her larger efforts to keep food and weight issues from consuming her life, to Michele Pezzuti at Contemporary Books/McGraw-Hill.

Robert Carroll, Ph. D.’s The Skeptic’s Dictionary: An Encyclopedia of Strange Beliefs, Delusions and Deceptions, a “lively, opinionated, common-sense compendium of articles debunking myths, hoaxes, superstitions, pseudoscience, the occult and more, by the chairman of the philosophy department at a California college,” to Jeff Golick at John Wiley & Sons.

Jennifer Lee’s anthology Paris In Mind: Three Centuries of Americans Writing About Paris, a literary valentine to the City of Light, with sections devoted to love and seduction, gastronomy, the art of living, and the love-hate Franco-American relationship, to Andrew Miller at Vintage Books/Random House.