Internet critic Andrew Keen (pictured, via) sold US rights for his next book to St. Martin's Press, studying the negative effects of the social networking era.

Level 5 Media agent Steve Hanselman sealed the deal, and Michael Flamini (who edited James Paul Gee's "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" will edit the book. Keen's first book, "The Cult of The Amateur," explore how the Internet is "killing our culture."

Here's more, from Keen's blog: "The new book, provisionally entitled DIGITAL VERTIGO: Loneliness, Anxiety and Inequality in the Social Media Age will be a contemplative defense of privacy rights and genuine human interaction in the social networking era."