Deal of the Week
Cherry Tackles ‘Forgiveness’ for PUP
After a 10-way auction, Princeton University Press won North American rights to Myisha Cherry’s The Failures of Forgiveness. Rob Tempio at PUP brokered the six-figure agreement with Margo Beth Fleming at Brockman. Cherry is the author of Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice and an assistant professor of philosophy at University of California, Riverside. PUP said Failures of Forgiveness, scheduled for spring 2023, recasts standardized notions that forgiveness is “letting go of negative feelings and behavior.” Instead, Cherry shows how we can “change our personal and social relationships with forgiveness” by relying on an approach that’s “philosophically grounded and psychologically supported.”
Parton Gets Lyrical at Chronicle
Singer, songwriter, and country music icon Dolly Parton sold Dolly Parton, Songteller to Chronicle Books. The deluxe volume, priced at $50, is subtitled My Life in Lyrics. Chronicle said the book is “a visual memoir and annotated songbook” that explores Parton’s life “through 175 of her best-loved songs.” In the deal, Jeff Kleinman and Steve Troha at Folio Literary Management sold world rights to Chronicle’s Christine Carswell and Rebecca Hunt.
Putnam Welcomes Katsu’s ‘Widow’
For Putnam, Sally Kim nabbed world rights to Alma Katsu’s Red Widow. The thriller, acquired from Inkwell Management’s Richard Pine and Eliza Rothstein, follows two female CIA agents who, Kim explained, “become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division—one that’s coming from inside the agency.” Katsu (The Deep) is a former senior intelligence analyst who worked for the CIA and NSA. Kim added that book is “in the spirit of Homeland and The Americans.”
Children's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include an #OwnVoices untitled YA novel by Natalia Sylvester (pictured), winner of the International Latino Book Award for fiction, about a Latinx immigrant teen in central Florida, who has lived with hip dysplasia and countless surgeries, as she navigates the waters of first love and feeling out of alignment—both within and outside of her body; the picture book Tomatoes for Neela, written by Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef and Taste the Nation, and illustrated by Caldecott Honor illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal, an intergenerational story about a girl who cooks with her mother in homage to her grandmother; and a sequel to Thanhha Lai's National Book Award and Newbery Honor-winning Inside Out and Back Again, which revisits Hà, two years after she and her family fled Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War and settled in Alabama.
S&S’s Millner Takes ‘Blood’ to St. Martin’s
Denene Millner, a bestselling author of adult and children’s titles and the editor of an eponymous imprint at Simon & Schuster, sold One Blood to St. Martin’s Press. Monique Patterson preempted North American rights to the book from Victoria Sanders at Victoria Sanders & Associates. The novel is, SMP said, a “multigenerational epic” with three settings: the South during the Great Migration, New York City during the civil rights movement, and present-day Atlanta. It explores, SMP went on, “the connection between three Black women: a birth mother who had her child taken away, the adoptive mother who raised that child, and the child who is the literal product of the two.”
Hur’s ‘Palace’ Built at Feiwel and Friends
June Hur, whose April novel The Silence of the Bones was a Junior Library Guild selection, sold The Red Palace to Feiwel and Friends. Amy Elizabeth Bishop at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret brokered the North American deal with Emily Settle at Feiwel. Bishop said the YA novel, set in 1750s Korea, follows a 17-year-old nurse and 18-year-old police inspector trying to “clear the crown prince’s name” after a massacre at court. Bishop added that the book is based on “a well-known story in Korea and among historical K-drama fans” about Prince Sado.
Cooper Moves to FSG
Brittney Cooper, author of the 2018 bestseller Eloquent Rage, struck a two-book deal with Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Jenna Johnson preempted world rights to How to Love a Feminist and On the Clock from Tanya McKinnon at McKinnon Literary. McKinnon said How to Love a Feminist is an essay collection about “love, justice, intersectional feminism, and activism,” while On the Clock examines “the powerful connections between racism and the ways we think about time.”
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Deal of the Week
Ballantine Won’t ‘Forget’ Alcindor
Yamiche Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, sold a memoir titled Don’t Forget to Ballantine. Sara Weiss won North American rights to the book, at auction, from the Gernert Company’s Alia Hanna Habib. Don’t Forget, Ballantine said, will detail how the author got into TV journalism. (In addition to her role at PBS NewsHour, she is also a contributor for NBC News and MSNBC.) In particular, Ballantine continued, the book will show “how the precise path Alcindor took—as the child of Haitian immigrants and as a journalism prodigy covering Black Lives Matter and civil rights abuses—informs her point of view while reporting on one of the most chaotic administrations in modern times.”
Ecco Goes to the Birds for Oshetsky
In a six-figure sale, Alexa Stark at Trident Media Group sold Claire Oshetsky’s Chouette to Ecco. Sara Birmingham nabbed North American rights to the novel at auction. Stark said the “wildly original” work follows a woman who “unexpectedly gives birth to an owl”; she added that the book explores “ambition, sacrifice, perceptions of ability, and the ferocity of motherly love,” likening it to works by Jenny Offill and Han Kang.
Faber Gets a ‘D’ at Hanover
International bestseller Michel Faber sold his latest novel, D (A Tale of Two Worlds), to Hanover Square Press. The book, set for December 2020, was bought from Penguin Random House UK in a North American rights agreement. Hanover Square’s Peter Joseph brokered the deal with Sarah Scarlett at PRH UK. In the novel, Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White), who was born in the Netherlands and now lives in the U.K., delivers a “modern-day Dickensian fable,” Hanover Square said. D, the publisher explained, follows a young woman named Dhikilo who “notices that the letter ‘D’ has suddenly disappeared from the language.” The heroine then “sets off on a quest to reclaim the missing letter, venturing from England into the wintry land of Liminus, a fantasy world enslaved by the monstrous Gamp—and populated by fearsome, enchanting creatures.” D’s release commemorates the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s death.
Suggs’s ‘Mija’ Travels to LBYR
Through an exclusive submission, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers’ Liz Kossnar bought Christine Suggs’s YA graphic memoir, Ay Mija!: My Bilingual Summer in Mexico, for six figures. The two-book, world rights deal—which includes a second, untitled graphic memoir—was brokered by Melissa Edwards and Alyssa Jennette at Stonesong. Suggs is the author-illustrator of Ay Mija!, which the agency said follows Suggs “as she spends two weeks with her family in Mexico, experiencing her history and finding her voice.” The book is set for 2023.
Children's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include Barakah Beats by debut author Maleeha Siddiqui (pictured), a middle grade contemporary novel about a Muslim girl who joins a boy band in an effort to find her place at a new school, sold in a seven-way auction; Some Girls Do, a YA contemporary queer romance by Jennifer Dugan, author of Hot Dog Girl and Verona Comics, starring an openly gay track star who falls for a closeted, bisexual local beauty queen; and End Like This by Kyra Leigh (Reaper), a YA contemporary retelling of the Lizzie Borden story.
Winfrey Gets ‘Sincere’ with Berkley
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks) sold a new novel, Very Sincerely Yours, in a two-book deal to Berkley. Stephen Barbara at InkWell Management represented the author. Cindy Hwang nabbed world rights to the book, which, Barbara said, was inspired, like the author’s previous works, “by her love of rom-coms and a specific kind of chemistry-building.” In Very Sincerely Yours, a woman recovering from a broken heart, Barbara went on, “vows to improve her life by doing one thing every day that scares her.” Winfrey is behind the Tumblr A Year of Romantic Comedies, in which she chronicled watching 52 movies in the genre over the course of a year. Very Sincerely Yours is slated for 2021.
B’bury Title Explores Unsolved Murder
For Bloomsbury, Daniel Loedel preempted Rachel Rear’s nonfiction Chained to the Sky. The book, which Dan Conaway at Writers House sold, spans more than 20 years and chronicles the aftermath of the unsolved murder of the author’s stepsister. Bloomsbury said that Rear delivers “a fabulously compulsive and moving reconstruction of the dark and serpentine path... of the long-unsolved murder of her stepsister” that “simultaneously explores the personal impact of living in her shadow and the wider legacies of abuse and corruption.” Loedel took North American rights in the deal.
Hendrix Sells ‘Final Girl’
After an auction, Jessica Wade at Berkley won two new horror novels by bestseller Grady Hendrix (The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires). The deal, for U.S., Canadian, and open market rights, was brokered by Joshua Bilmes at JABberwocky. The first book under contract, The Final Girl Support Group, is, Berkley said, an “homage to slasher films” and follows six girls who belong to a survivors support group that has been meeting for nearly two decades. The girls, the publisher elaborated, “managed to survive the unthinkable—and now someone is coming for them.” Final Girl is set for June 2021. The second book in the deal, a currently untitled standalone novel, is slated for 2022.
Roe Teaches ‘Etiquette’ to HC
Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe (A List of Cages) was bought by Kristin Pettit at HarperCollins. Peter Steinberg at Foundry Literary + Media represented Roe in the North American rights agreement. Steinberg explained that the YA novel follows a 16-year-old named Sayers Wayte, who’s “rich, popular, and more than a little arrogant.” When Sayers is abducted, all that changes. Steinberg elaborated: “As Sayers starts losing track of time, he starts losing track of himself, too, and his big bright world of privilege shrinks to a single dark room.” Dark Room Etiquette is set for May 2022.
Lit Startup Founder Sells Debut to FSG
Andrew Lipstein, who founded the literary startup 0s&1s, sold his debut novel to Jonathan Galassi at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Plotting, which Lipstein sold without a literary agent, is set in the world of New York publishing and, he said, follows an agent who makes grand promises to an up-and-coming writer. “When the author’s novel is found out to be too close to reality—and not his story to tell—the author is forced to make a Faustian bargain,” Lipstein explained. 0s&1s (0s-1s.com) is a retail site that sells a selection of small press titles direct to consumers. The site, which also sells magazines, says its aim is to “distribute digital literature that is truly independent, pro-author, green, and, above all, ambitious.”
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Deal of the Week
Ghansah’s ‘Explainers’ Goes to RH
In her first acquisition since moving into the role of editor-in-chief at Random House, Robin Desser bought journalist Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah’s The Explainers and the Explorers. Ghansah, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for a feature on Dylann Roof (a white supremacist who massacred nine people in a South Carolina church in 2015) in GQ, was represented in the North American rights agreement by Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency. The book, which is the author’s first full-length work of non-fiction, will, RH said, “be a two-volume, broad-sweeping work about the black experience in America, from its very beginnings to the current day.” Ghansah is the daughter of a Ghanaian immigrant father and a Louisianan mother, and her own family story is “that of both diaspora and deep roots in American soil,” the publisher added. “This crucial, eye-opening, and rigorously researched history will reset the standards for how we talk about the true American story, and is destined to be a classic.”
Francis’s ‘Children’ Find a Home at Harper
Patry Francis sold All the Children Are Home, for six figures, to Sara Nelson at Harper Perennial. Francis (The Orphans of Race Point) was represented by Alice Tasman at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. Tasman said the novel, due out in April 2021, is set in a small Massachusetts town during the 1950s and ’60s and follows, for 12 years, a family raising foster children. She said it delves into how the children “learn from their complicated matriarch to find courage and the resiliency to save themselves and each other.”
Delacorte Follows Oxford’s ‘Way’
For mid-six-figures at auction, Kelly Oxford sold her YA debut, All the Way. Krista Marino at Delacorte took North American rights to the novel in a two-book deal, brokered by Erin Malone at William Morris Endeavor. Oxford, a screenwriter whose directorial debut Pink Skies Ahead was set to premiere at this year’s now-canceled South by Southwest festival, has published two bestselling essay collections: Everything Is Perfect When You’re a Liar and When You Find Out the World Is Against You. All the Way, Delacorte said, was pitched as “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets Booksmart.” In it, a group of girls who learn that their recently deceased friend was a virgin “vow to lose their virginities before the same fate can befall them.” The book is set for spring 2022. The second book in the deal will also be a standalone novel.
Children's/YA Deals Roundup
New projects this week include author, playwright, and ‘Modern Love’ contributor David Valdes's (pictured) Spin Me Right Round, pitched as an #OwnVoices twist on Back to the Future, in which an out-and-proud Latinx teen accidentally time-travels back to his parents' era; Six Crimson Cranes, Elizabeth Lim's YA fantasy duology that’s a reimagining of the Wild Swans<.i> fairytale; and My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen, a gender-flipped Pygmalion story set in an alternate London in the 1800s.
Little, Brown Entertains Christie’s ‘Rehearsals’
Little, Brown’s Helen O’Hare took world rights to Annette Christie’s debut novel The Rehearsals. The novel, O’Hare said, “follows Megan and Tom, a couple who call off their wedding after a disastrous rehearsal dinner, only to wake up the next morning stuck in a time loop.” Calling the book “if One Day in December met Groundhog Day, by way of Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years,” she explained that the couple is forced to relive the day of the rehearsal, “with its painful secrets, age-old grievances, and family dramas—again and again until they get it right.” Joelle Hobeika and Viana Siniscalchi at Alloy Entertainment represented Christie on behalf of Jess Dallow at Brower Literary and Management.
Dent Lands ‘Summer Job’ at Putnam
For Putnam, Tara Singh Carlson bought North American rights to Lizzy Dent’s debut adult novel The Summer Job. The romance, sold by Amelia Evans at Penguin Random House UK (whose Viking division preempted the novel in February), is, Putnam said, a “laugh-out-loud love story” in which a woman in her early 30s flees her London life for a hotel in the Scottish Highlands, where “she pretends to be her best friend and a sommelier, and finds herself and love in the process.” The book is set for summer 2021 release in the U.S. and U.K.
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