LOCAVESTING is one of the Best Business Books of 2011 by Library Journal. Amy Cortese recently spoke about Locavesting at the ABA Winter Institute.

Mel Parker Books, LLC is both a book packaging firm and a literary agency.

As a full-service book producer/packager, we specialize in major practical nonfiction, developing titles for individuals, brands, and institutional entities. In our capacity as a book producer and book packager, we create original ideas for books, develop and finance publishing proposals, and deliver fully edited manuscripts or complete electronic files to publishers. Some packaged books include The Structure House Weight Loss Plan for Fireside/Simon & Schuster, One Minute Manners for Doubleday/Broadway, and the American Medical Association Complete Guide to Prevention and Wellness for John Wiley & Sons.

As a literary agency, we also represent authors for projects they bring to us, focusing primarily on high-profile narrative nonfiction, current affairs, science, psychology, lifestyle, and biography. Agented titles include newsmaking nonfiction such as the forthcoming Empire of the Mind: The Dawn of the Techno-Political Age by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen (Knopf), The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century by Dickson Despommier (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press), and Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit from It by Amy Cortese (Wiley).

We are always looking for high-profile, media-savvy authors who are thought leaders in their fields of expertise, and who have a unique and marketable message or story that can be conveyed across multiple platforms--from speaking engagements to radio and television appearances to online media.

In both capacities, either as a book producer commissioning and developing our own original projects from start to finish, or as a literary agency representing clients on the sales of their own proposals and manuscripts, Mel Parker Books works with all our authors through every phase of the publishing process, including promotion, marketing and licensing.

BOOK AND AUTHOR NEWS

ERIC SCHMIDT AND JARED COHEN'S EMPIRE OF THE MIND: The Dawn of the Techno-Political Age, was sold to Sonny Mehta at Knopf. EMPIRE OF THE MIND is an examination of how technology can be used to influence global politics, showing how connection technologies -- the tools that connect people both to vast amounts of information and to each other -- can create what Winston Churchill called an "Empire of the Mind," the democratic world that can only be secured by building coalitions of the connected. Rights sold in the UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Brazil, Portugal, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. Audio rights to Audible.

DICKSON DESPOMMIER, author of the THE VERTICAL FARM: Feeding the World in the 21st Century (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press), was recently interviewed by ABC.com and NPR in Los Angeles. Simplified Chinese rights were sold to Hunan Science and Technology Publishing House. Tantor Media also bought audio rights. Traditional Character rights have sold to Marco Polo Press in Taiwan, and Japanese rights have sold, at auction, to NTT Shuppan. He recently appeared at the Seoul Digital Forum, IdeaCity in Toronto, and the Manchester International Festival.

LOCAVESTING: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit from It by journalist Amy Cortese, who coined the term "Locavestors" in the New York Times Magazine Year in Ideas issue, was sold to Deb Englander at Wiley and was published in June. Amy Cortese appeared on the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC and on Leonard Lopate on NPR. Recent endorsements include:

“An inspiring look at what local businesses can achieve.”
--Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics

“Investing locally makes sense as long as you do it with your eyes wide open. And this book is a realistic, up-to-the-minute exploration of the field. After all, it was the local community that invested in Ben & Jerry’s—and it worked out pretty well for them.”
--Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s

“Buy this book before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bans it! Locavesting demolishes the myth that the best investment options lie in the financial-doomsday machine we call Wall Street. Fasten your belt for a mind-blowing journey where you will learn about dozens of highly profitable community investment opportunities. Amy Cortese takes you on a breathtaking ride.”
--Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution and Going Local.

DO I GET MY ALLOWANCE BEFORE OR AFTER I'M GROUNDED? by Vanessa Van Petten, a teen parenting expert who has appeared on CNN, and whose blog, RadicalParenting.com, is read by over 300,000 unique visitors per month, was sold to Meghan Stevenson at Plume, which will publish the book on August 30th. Vanessa was just named a parent-teen columnist for CNN.com., and she will be featured on the TODAY Show, USA Today, and Family Circle in September. Publishers Weekly said:

"Van Petten, founder of the popular Web site RadicalParenting.com, offers parents a candid view of the contemporary teen's world in this eye-opening text. Van Petten uses actual stories about teens and their often anxious, angry, or befuddled parents to introduce each chapter. Pointing out that she is neither a parent nor a teen (nor a doctor, therapist, or counselor), the college-grad author has nevertheless earnestly investigated her subject and includes current research on teens as well as hundreds of "real quotes, interviews, e-mails and advice from actual teens." Van Petten explores a variety of timely subjects, including peer relationships, teen/parent communication, bullying, technology, and "risky business" (smoking, drinking, sex, and more). Her outlook on technology and "Internet savvy" is particularly incisive, emphasizing not only the hazards of "time-suck" activities (i.e., Facebook, chatting on IM, and texting) but also the many social and academic benefits of the digital universe. Like a crafty spy, Van Petten comfortably segues from parent to teen perspective, and while noting that each adolescent is unique, she skillfully opens doors to the collective teen psyche."

Vanessa Van Petten received amazing coverage from the Chicago Tribune which resulted in several newspapers picking up the story. Plus, there were features in ModernMom.com, HuffPost.com, GalTime, WGNtv.com along with a local interview in LA with KCAL-TV. She also appeared on Better TV, Martha Stewart Living Today, Seventeen Magazine, USA Today, Family Circle, and NBC's TODAY Show.

Mel Parker has worked in virtually every aspect of trade book publishing, from mass
market and trade paperback to hardcover and book clubs.

Before launching Mel Parker Books, Mel was Senior Vice President and Editorial Director of Bookspan, the book club partnership between Time Warner and Bertelsmann AG, where he directed the editorial acquisitions programs for all of Bookspan's general interest, lifestyle and specialty book clubs, including Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Mystery Guild, Quality Paperback Book Club, History Book Club, Black Expressions and One Spirit. At Bookspan, Mel also played a key role in consolidating the book club businesses of Book-of-the-Month Club and Doubleday Direct into Bookspan; launching a number of successful new book clubs such as Mosaico, the Latino book club; and leading Bookspan's highly profitable original publishing program for book club members.

Mel came to the book clubs from Time Warner Trade Publishing, where he was Senior Vice President of Warner Books and Publisher of its paperback division. During his more than eleven years at Warner, Mel acquired and edited his own hardcover list of bestselling fiction by Dean Koontz, David Morrell and Larry Bond, as well as hardcover bestsellers in a variety of nonfiction categories, from narrative nonfiction and biography to business books, health, inspiration and pop culture. Mel was also responsible for Warner's mass market paperback publishing program, including major bestselling authors such as Nelson DeMille, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Scott Turow, Elmore Leonard, James Patterson, P.D. James, Carl Hiaasen, Sidney Sheldon, Brad Meltzer and Sandra Brown. And he developed a trade paperback list featuring critically acclaimed authors such as Jeffrey Eugenides, Rick Moody, Katherine Dunn, Alan Lightman, James Ellroy, Lorrie Moore, Ethan Canin, Calvin Trillin, E.O. Wilson, Robert Hughes, and Sherman Alexie.

Prior to joining Warner, Mel was Editor-in-Chief of the Berkley Publishing Group, where he played an instrumental role in helping build the company into a major paperback publisher featuring 10 continuing New York Times bestselling authors. He also acquired a number of major bestsellers, most notably THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy, which set the stage for his bestselling career at Putnam and Berkley.

Mel was chairman of the Executive Trade Committee of the Association of American Publishers, where he launched the industry group's national Get Caught Reading Campaign, which secured millions of dollars of free print advertising to promote books and reading. Mel also lectured on publishing at the Stanford Publishing Course and at the University of Denver Publishing Institute, and his essay on paperback publishing appears in EDITORS ON EDITING (Grove Atlantic).

Foreign and audio rights are represented by Trident Media Group.
Foreign rights: Claire Roberts (croberts@tridentmediagroup.com)
Audio rights: Adrienne Lombardo (alombardo@tridentmediagroup.com)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Send a query letter and brief synopsis within the body of an email (no attachments) to submit@melparkerbooks.com. Please understand that given the number of queries we receive, we can respond only to those that interest us.

Mel Parker, President
David Parker, Editor-at-Large