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Hyperion and Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG) today announced signing bestselling author, Food Network star and lifestyle expert Sandra Lee, along with her imprint, SL Books, to major contracts with their respective divisions.
These complementary deals mark a strategic partnership across Disney/ABC business units that draw on each company’s promotional and marketing strengths. The projects will complement each other in tone, theme and branding as they begin to launch in Fall 2011.
The sweeping five-book deal—comprising two cookbooks focusing on healthful, quick-scratch meals, an entertaining/lifestyle book, and two novels—is an unprecedented contract for Hyperion, both in volume and scope.
The first two books will be published Fall 2011 in tandem with the re-launch of Food Network’s fifth season of Lee’s Sandra’s Money Saving Meals television show. Book one, Money-Saving Meals and Round-2 Recipes, which offers main-dish recipes and an additional Round 2 recipe using the same base ingredient as the main dish, will release in October 2011. Book two, Easy Entertaining at Home, will release in November 2011.
Books three and five, to be published in Summer 2012 and Summer 2013, mark Sandra Lee’s first foray into fiction. The novels will be loosely based on fictional food characters with a peppering of recipes to coincide with the characters throughout the book. Book four, the second cookbook entitled 365 Easy Family Meals, will release in 2012. Ellen Archer, President and Publisher of Hyperion, acquired World rights.
“Sandra Lee is a creative force of nature,” said Archer. “We are thrilled to be publishing her cooking and entertainment books, and are looking forward to expanding her brand to fiction, adding a new genre to her impressive repertoire, and introducing her to a whole new audience.”
To help women create magical experiences at home this holiday season, DIMG will be working with Sandra Lee to develop a 15-episode original online video series inspired by her upcoming books this Fall. The series will run across the Disney Online network of sites for moms and families, including DisneyFamily.com, FamilyFun.com, Kaboose.com, among others.
“Sandra is an unstoppable talent,” said Margie Gilmore, Vice President, Online Originals for the Disney Interactive Media Group. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with her on this new digital initiative.”
Lee said, “I am so pleased to join both Hyperion and DIMG. It’s a dream come true to align with such smart divisions adept at co-branding and collaboration. It’s an ideal match for me.”