Hodder snaps up Robson's 'Intelligence Trap' in overnight pre-empt

Hodder has pre-empted BBC journalist David Robson’s The Intelligence Trap, a book that has now sold in six territories internationally, with US rights snapped up in a six-figure deal at auction.

Felicity Bryan Associates agent Carrie Plitt sold UK and Commonwealth rights to non-fiction book The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Stupid Mistakes and How to Avoid Them to Drummond Moir at Hodder in an "overnight pre-empt".

The book has sold in six territories internationally and is under offer in two other territories. North American rights sold in a six-figure deal at auction to Jeff Shreve at W.W. Norton in the US, in a sale handled by Zoë Pagnamenta at the Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. Italian rights have gone to Ponte alle Grazie, in a pre-empt, Spanish rights to Paidós at auction, Brazilian rights to Sextante in a pre-empt, and Taiwanese rights to Business Weekly at auction. The proposal is also under offer in the Netherlands and in China.

The Intelligence Trap draws together research from areas of psychology, neuroscience and philosophy to demonstrate the many counterintuitive ways that intelligence can lead to failure and builds an argument for a wiser way of thinking. 

Plitt, who joined Felicity Bryan Associates five months ago, has done a number of other deals in addition to Robson’s, including: Outpost by Dan Richards, a proposal exploring cabins at the edge of wilderness, sold at auction to Simon Thorogood at Canongate; The Drowning Man by Alex Reeve, a Victorian crime series featuring a transgender narrator, sold to Allison Hennessey at Bloomsbury for her new Raven imprint; and A Continent of Epics by travel writer Nick Jubber, a proposal that looks at Europe today through the lens of epic poetry, to Nick Davies at John Murray / Nicholas Brealey.

Plitt commented: "I couldn’t be more thrilled for David Robson – The Intelligence Trap is a fun, thought-provoking and important proposal and it’s shaping up to be an international sensation. It’s also brilliant to have found a home for my authors at Felicity Bryan Associates – I feel fully supported here, surrounded by a team of exceptional agents and staff, and I look forward to many more deals to come."