Publishers Marketplace reported yesterday that former Time Warner Books CEO Larry Kirshbaum has made his first deal since switching to the other side of the publishing world to found LJK Literary late last year. He secured a six-figure advance for James Sheehan with St. Martin's Press, who will first publish the mass market version of THE MAYOR OF LEXINGTON AVENUE (originally issued in trade paperback by Yorkville Press) in early 2007, with a second novel to follow later that year.

When asked if any changes to LEXINGTON would be made prior to its mass market release, Sheehan's new editor, Marc Resnick, was quick to point out that any such changes would be minor ones, a point Kirshbaum reiterated.

Similar deals were also brokered in France and England, where the books will be published by Belfond and Transworld (where the book was acquired by crime & thriller publisher Selina Walker) respectively.