Bob Prior of the MIT Press signs a competitive deal with Professor Sian Harding of Imperial College London for her debut book, The Exquisite Machine. Up against stiff competition from top trade publishers, the publishing house of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scooped eminent researcher Sian Harding’s compelling and magisterial account of the workings of the human heart.
“I’m writing this book because there is a revolution going in our understanding of the heart and it is time to get the word out. The fight against cardiac disease, for one thing, is being won thanks to this new science—but beyond what goes wrong with the heart, if people really understood the perfection of its design and the way it fights for your survival, they would be amazed. I am very excited to be working with the excellent MIT Press on my book. Their experience in bringing cutting-edge science to a global audience is perfect for this my message.”
—Professor Sian Harding
World English Language rights in the book, which promises to “reveal our profoundly changing understanding of an organ that combines reliability with incredible adaptability beyond any machine,” were acquired by MIT Press executive editor Bob Prior. The deal was negotiated by Jaime Marshall of J.P. Marshall Literary Agency, who notes that “Professor Harding is an established world authority in cardiac research and a trusted expert in the media for comment on breaking news in medicine and on the role of women in science.”
Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design. The Press made the news in recent weeks after Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS) announced a multi-year sales and distribution agreement with them beginning July 2020. PRHPS will sell and distribute Professor Harding’s book (scheduled for publication in September 2021) along with the MIT Press’s entire frontlist and backlist across all sales channels worldwide.