Deal of the Week
 Berkley Re-ups Downing for 7 Figures In a seven-figure deal, Berkley’s Jen Monroe took world rights to three new novels by Samantha Downing. Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency represented Downing, whose March 2019 debut, the psychological thriller My Lovely Wife, was also published by Berkley; the imprint said that title has sold more than 500,000 units worldwide. (It has also just been optioned for film by Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films, and is a finalist for Best First Novel at this year’s Edgar Awards.) Under the new deal, Downing will publish three standalones, one in 2021, with the others following in 2022 and 2023. Berkley said each novel will “continue in the author’s signature style, exploring the dark, twisted, and uninhibited side of human nature.” Downing’s sophomore novel, He Started It (covered under a previous Berkley contract), will be released on April 28.  Fu’s ‘Blossom’ Opens at LB For Little, Brown, Helen O’Hare took North American rights to Melissa Fu’s debut novel, Peach Blossom Spring. Clare Alexander at London-based agency Aitken Alexander brokered the deal with O’Hare, after Wildfire acquired world rights to the title. (Wildfire is an imprint of U.K. publisher Headline.) LB said the novel, set for 2022, is “a soaring, multi-generational” saga set in 1938 that follows a young widow who, along with her four-year-old son, must “flee their burning city and start an epic journey across China, looking always to the inspiring stories of their most precious possession: a beautifully illustrated scroll.” The book marks O’Hare’s first acquisition since joining LB from Putnam last month. Fu, who grew up in the U.S. and now lives in the U.K., was most recently the David T.K. Wong Fellow at the University of East Anglia.   Schur Gets Ethical at S&S Michael Schur, creator of the TV series The Good Place, sold his first book to Simon & Schuster. The tentatively titled How to Be Good: A Definitive Answer for Exactly What to Do, in Every Possible Situation was bought in a world English rights deal by S&S’s v-p and executive editor, Eamon Dolan. Richard Abate at 3 Arts represented Schur, who also cocreated the sit-coms Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks & Recreation. The book, S&S said, “will use humor and philosophy to determine how we should deal with the large and small ethical challenges we all face every day” and “will take readers on a journey through the 2,500-year discussion of ethics.” How to Be Good is set for a fall 2021 release.  Clain Nabs Andrews’s Hot Debut Judy Clain, v-p and editor-in-chief of Little, Brown, bought North American rights to Alexandra Andrews’s debut, Who Is Maud Dixon? The work of psychological suspense, which the publisher is comparing to Gone Girl, was sold by Jennifer Joel at ICM Partners. Set for spring 2021, the novel follows an author who, after becoming a major bestseller with her pseudonymously published debut, hires a young fan, an aspiring novelist, as her assistant. When the two land in Morocco, where the author is doing research for her next book, LB said, “the ambitions of both parties surface with astonishing speed and lethality” as “the partnership between author and assistant is stripped away to reveal brutal and elemental desires and a deadly ruthlessness.” At press time, the novel had sold in 20 countries; it has also been optioned by Universal Pictures. Andrews is a copywriter who has worked at the Paris Review and ProPublica.  Darroch Reveals ‘Damage’ in Memoir Kim Darroch, former U.K. ambassador to the U.S., sold Collateral Damage to PublicAffairs. Clive Priddle bought the book from London-based agent Georgina Capel in a simultaneous deal with William Collins, a division of HarperCollins UK. The publisher said the book, subtitled Britain, America and Europe in the Age of Trump, is an “unvarnished, behind-the-scenes account” of Darroch’s tumultuous time as a diplomat. The book will, the publisher went on, detail “the inside story behind Darroch’s resignation in 2019, describe the challenges of dealing with the Trump White House, and offer a diplomat’s perspective on Brexit and how it looked to Britain’s closest ally.”  Children's/YA Deals Roundup New projects this week include two YA novels from Tiffany D. Jackson (pictured): Smoke, pitched as Get Out meets The Haunting of Hill House, and The Weight of Blood, a remix of Stephen King's Carrie set at a school's first integrated prom; an early reader graphic novel series called Surviving the Wild, from author-illustrator Remy Lai (Pie in the Sky); and Mandarin Duck!, the third picture book by Caldecott Honoree Bao Phi, illustrated by debut artist Dion MBD.   Macmillan Buys Greenwald’s ‘Silence’ Pulitzer Prize–winner Glenn Greenwald sold You Can’t Silence This to Macmillan’s Metropolitan Books imprint. ICM’s Amanda Urban, who represented the journalist, brokered the world rights agreement with Metropolitan publisher Sara Bershtel. The book, the publisher said, will be based on “a series of exposés that rocked Brazilian politics and revealed rampant corruption at the highest levels of the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.” Greenwald, who now writes for the Intercept, is best known for his series of reports for the Guardian detailing widespread government surveillance programs. The new book, Macmillan explained, offers the first full account of how Greenwald broke the news about the corruption in Bolsonaro’s administration, as well as “the consequences of his reporting and the ongoing fallout—for the Bolsonaro government, for Brazil, and for the democratic world.”  Yoon’s ‘Park’ to Aladdin After an auction, Alyson Heller at Aladdin won North American rights, in a two-book deal, to Jenna Yoon’s middle grade debut. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel was, per Aladdin, “pitched as Harriet the Spy meets Race to the Sun” and follows a 12-year-old in a “magical spy organization” who must save her parents from “an evil diviner spirit.” Penny Moore and Erin Files at Aevitas Creative Management represented Yoon. The book is slated for summer 2022.  Brown Does Double at Morrow Dale Brown sold two military thrillers to William Morrow in a high-six-figure deal. David Highfill acquired North American rights to the books from Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. Trident said the first book will “focus on a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who is assigned to a remote post in Alaska” and what happens when an “assignment designed to put his career permanently on ice turns hot, as Russian combat aircraft and advanced surveillance planes begin probing deeper and deeper into American and Canadian airspace.”  Fox’s ‘Time’ to Flatiron Bob Miller at Flatiron Books bought a new book by Michael J. Fox titled No Time Like the Future. The fourth title from the actor and bestselling author will, Flatiron said, offer a reexamination of his “iconic optimism” after his diagnosis, at 29, with Parkinson’s disease. In the book, according to Flatiron, Fox “reassesses this outlook while sharing stories and observations about illness and health, aging, the strength of family and friends, and how our perceptions about time affect the way we approach mortality.” Amanda Urban at ICM Partners represented Fox, and the book is set for November.  Sugar23’s First Buy At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Alex Littlefield bought Reid Mitenbuler’s Wanderlust. The inaugural title for HMH’s new Sugar23 Books imprint, HMH said, is a “nonfiction narrative about larger-than-life adventurer Peter Freuchen,” who was “world-famous in the first half of the 20th century for daring exploits that spanned the globe.” Littlefield took world rights to the book at auction from Heather Schroder at Compass Talent.  Morgan’s ‘Jen’ Joins LB Beth Morgan’s debut, A Touch of Jen, was acquired by Jean Garnett at Little, Brown. Alexa Stark at Trident Media Group represented Morgan in the world English rights agreement. LB called the novel a “viciously funny, genre-bending” work that offers a “disturbing exploration of the stalker-ism inherent in social media culture.” In the book, a couple’s obsession with a woman named Jen unleashes a (literal) monster. LB added that Jen has been described as “Ottessa Moshfegh meets David Cronenberg.”   
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Deal of the Week
 SMP Goes Big for Gramont’s ‘Mystery' In a rumored seven-figure deal, Jennifer Enderlin at St. Martin’s Press preempted Nina de Gramont’s novel The Mystery Writer. The world rights agreement was brokered by Peter Steinberg at Foundry Literary + Media. The work, SMP said, centers on the real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie, who went missing for 11 days in 1926. The publisher explained that the novel “is told through the point of view of husband Archie Christie’s mistress.” Gramont, who teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is the author of numerous books for teens and adults; her 2001 debut, the short story collection Of Cats and Men, won a Discovery Award from the New England Booksellers Association. Film rights to the work are being handed by Rich Green at the Gotham Group.  Yovanovitch Sells Memoir to HMH Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, sold a currently untitled memoir to Alex Littlefield at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Littlefield preempted world rights to the book, for a reported seven figures, from Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn at Javelin. HMH said the book, slated for spring 2021, “will recount Yovanovitch’s long career in the U.S. foreign service, which took her from Mogadishu to Moscow to Kiev and finally back to Washington, D.C.—where, to her dismay, she found a political system beset by many of the same challenges she had spent her career combating overseas.”  Goodall Brings ‘Hope’ to Celadon Doug Abrams at Idea Architects sold The Book of Hope, which he’s cowriting with Jane Goodall, to Celadon Books. Jamie Raab took North American rights to the title, which is set for fall 2021, and will, the publisher said, “celebrate the 60th anniversary of Jane’s pioneering research” and “show how, even in the face of great adversity, hope can be found in human nature and in nature itself.” Abrams, who founded the Idea Architects agency, also cowrote The Book of Joy, a 2016 bestseller by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Goodall was represented in the agreement by Adrian Sington at Kruger Cowne.  ‘The Ballerinas’ Pirouette at SMP In a six-figure acquisition, Sarah Cantin at St. Martin’s Press nabbed world rights to Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s debut novel, The Ballerinas. SMP said the book, which Cantin preempted from Sarah Phair at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, follows three dancers who are reunited in adulthood after meeting at the Paris Opera Ballet School as teenagers and must “reckon with old betrayals and new secrets.” Kapelke-Dale is the coauthor of a 2014 memoir about female friendships called Graduates in Wonderland and trained as a ballet dancer for years. She has an MA from the Université de Paris VII and currently lives in France.  Children's/YA Deals Roundup New projects this week include What We’ll Build, a new picture book by Oliver Jeffers (pictured), author of Here We Are and Lost and Found, written for his young daughter; Carnegie Medal nominee Megan Shepherd's middle-grade novel Dog Star, inspired by the true story of Laika, the first canine astronaut; and Waffles and Pancake, a four-book early graphic novel series by Drew Brockington, author of the CatStronauts series.   Charles Gets ‘Muted’ for Scholastic After an auction, Scholastic’s Amanda Maciel and David Levithan won North American rights to Tami Charles’s YA novel Muted. The six-figure deal for the novel in verse was brokered by Lara Perkins at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Charles (Like Vanessa) was inspired to write the book, Scholastic said, by the #MeToo movement and her experience being in an all-girl R&B group. The publisher added that the novel is “a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, and how a girl’s dreams can be used against her—and what it takes to fight back.” Muted is set for a 2021 release.  Benedict Re-ups at Sourcebooks Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks signed her current author Marie Benedict (Lady Clementine) to a new two-book, North American rights deal. The six-figure agreement was handled by Laura Dail at Laura Dail Literary Agency. Sourcebooks said the novels, like Benedict’s previous work, will tell stories of “women in the shadows of history.” The first book will be about Rose Vallard, a Paris museum curator who, the publisher explained, “passed information about art stolen from Jewish collectors to the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation.” The second book is about the British scientist Rosalind Franklin.  Mundy’s ‘Sisterhood’ to Crown Liza Mundy (Code Girls) sold two new books to Crown in a North American rights deal. Paul Whitlatch acquired the books—The Sisterhood and a currently untitled work—from Todd Shuster and Justin Brouckaert at Aevitas Creative Management. The Sisterhood, Crown said, was pitched “in the tradition” of books like Legacy of Ashes and The Looming Tower, and is “a narrative-driven history of women in the CIA.” In it, the publisher went on, Mundy offers “the most comprehensive account yet of women intelligence officers’ crucial contributions to American history.” The Sisterhood is set for a 2022 publication; the release date and topic of the second book has not yet been determined. 
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