Trident chairman Robert Gottlieb.

Trident Media Group, a powerful New York literary agency whose clients include Deepak Chopra, “Millionaire Matchmaker” Patti Stanger and The Vatican, has announced it will launch an e-book division to "create, manage and implement innovative e-book strategies for its authors, including the distribution of a variety of e-books directly to a large number of e-tailers in North America and internationally."

Other agencies have ventured here in the past. In 2010, Andrew Wiley started Odyssey Editions, a program to sell digital editions of certain clients' books directly to Amazon, and incurred the wrath of Random House, which said it would no longer do business with Mr. Wylie if he included authors first published under the company's imprints. Other publishers also lashed out against the deal.

Trident appears to be doing something different: "Trident will not become a publisher, but will instead continue in its new e-book operations to have itself aligned with its clients whose interests we serve as an agent and manager," said the chairman of Trident, Robert Gottlieb (not to be confused with Observer dance critic and former New Yorker editor Robert Gottlieb), in a press release. In fact, the agency's plans seem to include potentially competing with the likes of Byliner and Atavist. It described the program as including "out-of-print, backlist, new frontlist and original titles, special short-form nonfiction and fiction works by its prize-winning authors, enhanced e-books and new formats as the market develops, print-on-demand options, and new business relationships with traditional and non-traditional publishers."

The Observer has learned that Chuck Todd—the defiantly goateed newsman who serves as the chief White House correspondent and political director for NBC News—has sold a book proposal to editor Geoff Shandler of Little, Brown about the first few years of Mr. Obama's presidency.

In January, Vintage published Mr. Todd's first book—which he wrote along with NBC director of elections Sheldon Gawaiser—called How Barack Obama Won: A State-by-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election.

According to Mr. Todd's agent, Matthew Carnicelli of the Trident Media Group, Mr. Todd's new book will be a "nuanced analytical narrative" focusing on the political relationship between President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mr. Carnicelli noted that if things go according to plan, Mr. Todd will be delivering the manuscript to his editor in the summer of 2011 for a likely mid-2012 publication.

"Chuck has met with Clinton and Obama on a number of occasions," Mr. Carnicelli wrote to The Observer via email on Monday afternoon. "Indeed, few other journalists in DC or New York have the type of access he has."

At this point, Mr. Seinfeld's deal looks like it still hasn't closed, but the sheer number of commas Mr. Strone is juggling has stunned many in the publishing industry.

Media Mob spoke to the seven figure agent—who has brokered deals for Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Paris Hilton—by phone this morning and put before him the concerns of the book industry's most anxious critics.

Below, our Q&A, with some of the questions recreated post-facto from memory and some of Mr. Strone's answers edited for clarity.

What's happening with the Seinfeld book?
I have nothing I can say on that. I’m not making any comment.

Is it becoming more common for book projects to go out to publishers without proposals attached, the way these two did?
I do both. I have books that I sell with detailed proposals. It just depends on the situation and the particular person involved. I’ve been doing this a long time. I have pretty good instincts about what the market is.

What are some other celebrity-driven deals of this scale that you’ve done recently?
There’s been so many—I’m trying to think. There was the deal for Anthony Zuiker, the creator of CSI. There’s the Buzz Aldrin book that is coming out July 20th. Belinda Carlisle, Melissa Gilbert. I just sold Tori Spelling's second book. I did Roger Moore's book, My Word Is My Bond.

Do you think the economic environment makes these celebrity-driven books more likely to attract interest from publishers than they used to?
I think there’s always going to be a market for books that publishers think are going to sell a lot of copies. People don’t spend money on stuff unless they think they’re gonna make money. That’s just common sense. You’re not gonna report something you don’t think anyone cares about, right? It’s the same thing. People are bidding, competitively, in a marketplace. What can I say? I mean, I don’t make people spend the money.

Do you think those big books are compelling publishers to pull back resources from "midlist" books, the ones that don’t go for a lot of money because the author isn’t well-known or the book isn’t obviously commercial?
I think there is a sense of belt-tightening in that area. I feel that is evident at this time. You should ask the publishers. I’m one step removed.

What do you say to the people who were horrified last week to hear about these multimillion dollar deals of yours?
I don’t know why they should be horrified. As I say, nobody is forced to spend the money. People don’t spend the money unless they feel it’s a good investment.

There is a concern that publishers feel cowed, and out of timidy are only willing to pick up books that have built-in audiences.
What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with knowing you have a built-in audience? [How is it any different] if you’re talking about a name-brand fiction author? Do you think it’s wrong for a publisher to spend a lot of money on Dan Brown or John Grisham or James Patterson? It’s the same thing. It’s a built-in audience, it’s just that they’re a slightly different business model.

Did you have reservations about going out with two such huge books in one week? Is there an argument to be made for spacing them out?
I suppose you could make an argument for spacing them out. But, no, I didn’t have a problem with it.