Coming October, 2008 from John Wiley & Sons

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

As a full-service book producer, we specialize in major practical nonfiction, developing titles primarily in the categories of business and health with 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. Most recently, we developed books with experts such as Gerard Musante, Ph.D., author of The Structure House Weight Loss Plan (Simon & Schuster); Ann Marie Sabath, author of One Minute Manners (Doubleday Broadway), and Laurence Westreich, M.D., author of Helping the Addict You Love (Simon & Schuster). And we’re now working with the American Medical Association to develop the American Medical Association Complete Guide to Prevention and Wellness (John Wiley & Sons, October 2008).

As a literary agency, we also represent authors for projects they bring to us, focusing primarily on high-profile narrative nonfiction, biography and commercial fiction. Recent titles published include newsmaking narrative nonfiction such as Children of Jihad: A Young American's Journey Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen (Gotham/Penguin), topical nonfiction such as The Lazy Environmentalist by Josh Dorfman (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), as well as forthcoming mainstream suspense fiction such as The Hunted by Wayne Barcomb (Thomas Dunne Books/St.Martin's Minotaur).

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, we work with all our authors through every phase of the publishing process, including promotion, marketing and licensing.

BOOK AND AUTHOR NEWS

D.A HAYDEN and MICHAEL WILDER, authors of the forthcoming FROM B.A TO PAYDAY: LAUNCHING YOUR CAREER AFTER COLLEGE, were featured in the New York Times on 5/29.

JOSH DORFMAN, author of THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST, has signed to be the host of "The Lazy Environmentalist", which will be televised on the Sundance Channel. He is also a spokesperson for Brita's FilterForGood campaign.

JARED COHEN, author of CHILDREN OF JIHAD: A YOUNG AMERICAN'S TRAVELS AMONG THE YOUTH OF THE MIDDLE EAST, appeared recently on CurrentTV and on Radar. He will be speaking at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte on 8/26.

AMA COMPLETE GUIDE TO PREVENTION AND WELLNESS has just been named a Featured Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild, Book-of-the-Month Club, One Spirit Book Club and Doubleday Book Club.

THE HUNTED by Wayne Barcomb has been sold to Random House/Goldmann in Germany, Hayakawa in Japan, and Books on Tape.

Recent packaged books include AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION COMPLETE GUIDE TO PREVENTION AND WELLNESS by the American Medical Association (John Wiley & Sons), ONE MINUTE MANNERS: Quick Answers to the Most Awkward Situations You'll Ever Face at Work by Ann Marie Sabath (Doubleday Broadway), THE STRUCTURE HOUSE WEIGHT LOSS PLAN by Gerard J. Musante, Ph.D. (Fireside/Simon & Schuster), HELPING THE ADDICT YOU LOVE by Laurence M. Westreich, M.D. (Fireside/Simon & Schuster), and FROM B.A. TO PAYDAY: Launching Your Career after College by D.A Hayden and Michael Wilder (Stewart, Tabori & Chang). Recent agented titles include NOT BUILT IN A DAY: Exploring Rome and its Architecture by George H. Sullivan (Avalon Publishing Group), CHILDREN OF JIHAD: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen (Gotham/Penguin), THE HUNTED by Wayne Barcomb (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur) and THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST by Josh Dorfman (Stewart, Tabori & Chang).

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. Some notable hardcover nonfiction bestsellers include SELLING THE INVISIBLE by Harry Beckwith, FIRST YOU HAVE TO ROW A LITTLE BOAT by Richard Bode, SUNDAY NIGHTS AT SEVEN by Jack Benny and Joan Benny, THE GRATEFUL DEAD FAMILY ALBUM by Jerilyn Brandelius, FLIGHT OF THE BUFFALO by James Belasco, THE I LOVE LUCY BOOK by Michael McClay, GOOD NEWS FOR BAD DAYS by Paul Keenan, and WAYLON by Waylon Jennings and Lenny Kaye. 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, Alan Lightman, James Ellroy, Lorrie Moore, Ethan Canin, Calvin Trillin, E.O. Wilson, Edna O'Brien, 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 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: Alanna Ramirez (aramirez@tridentmediagroup.com

Mel Parker, President
David Parker, Editor