DEAL OF THE WEEK
‘Outsider’ Rogers Finds In at Portfolio
After a five-house auction, Portfolio’s Leah Trouwborst won North American rights to Ciera Rogers’s The Outsider Advantage for what the house is calling a “significant six-figure” sum. The book, which is being written with YA fantasy author J. Elle (the forthcoming Wings of Ebony), was pitched, the publisher said, as “#Girlboss meets The Power of Broke” and is “an empowerment manual for outsiders without privilege, fancy degrees, or expendable resources, equipping them to persevere in an insiders’ world.” The book teaches readers “to see their unique strengths, and to translate them into glass-shattering business and financial success.” Rogers is the founder of the online fashion brand Babes, which caters to curvy women and whose devotees include Kim Kardashian. Trouwborst said that “the business book marketplace deserves more diverse voices” and that Rogers “brings an electrifying paradigm shift and an unforgettable personal story to the project.” Rogers was represented by Natalie Lakosil at Bradford Literary Agency.
FROM THE U.S.
Penguin Picks Tran’s ‘Flowers’
Stegner Fellow and New Yorker contributor Paul Tran sold a debut poetry collection to Paul Slovak at Penguin Books. All the Flowers Kneeling will be part of the Penguin Poets series and, the publisher said, will examine “the emotional and psychological transformation of a queer and trans descendant of Vietnamese refugees as they reassemble a fragmented self in the aftermath of imperial violence and interpersonal abuse.” Rob McQuilkin at Massie & McQuilkin handled the North American rights agreement for Tran.
Weir’s ‘River’ Runs Through Chronicle Prism
At Chronicle Prism, Cara Bedick acquired world rights to journalist Bill Weir’s Dear River. Weir is CNN’s chief climate correspondent, and the book, Bedick said, is “a love letter, and apology, to his son for the planet he is inheriting.” Dear River also serves as “a celebration of our planet and an atlas of human nature that will contain lessons Weir has collected from the happiest, healthiest, and most resilient societies in the world.” Pilar Queen at United Talent Agency sold the book, which is slated for fall 2022.
Tor Helps Itself to Dean’s ‘Book Eaters’
Sunyi Dean’s debut, The Book Eaters, was nabbed by Tor Books. Lindsey Hall preempted North American rights to the title, which is slated for winter 2022. Tor described Dean, who lives in England, as a biracial single autistic mom. The book, Tor explained, follows a secret community known as Book Eaters, whose members consume books as food. When a young Book Eater named Devon enters adulthood, she gives birth to a Mind Eater, who must eat human minds to survive. “Instead of letting [the Book Eaters] make a monster out of her baby,” the publisher said, “Devon will become the monster herself in order to protect him. And she will burn down anyone who stands in her way.” Naomi Davis at BookEnds Literary Agency represented Dean.
Park Row Wins Duprie Memoir
You’re Killing It by Jacey Duprie was acquired by Park Row Books. Erika Imranyi bought world rights to the memoir, at auction, from Albert Lee at United Talent Agency on behalf of Hilary Williams Dunlap at Digital Brand Architects. Park Row noted that Duprie has more than half a million followers on Instagram and is the founder of Damsel in Dior, a fashion, travel, and home decor blog turned lifestyle brand. In the book, which Park Row said is ideal “for fans of Rachel Hollis and Glennon Doyle,” Duprie “lifts the veil on her seemingly perfect life and reveals the secrets to personal fulfillment.” You’re Killing It is scheduled for winter 2022.
Atria Re-ups Krueger
William Kent Krueger sold world rights to two new Cork O’Connor mysteries, along with a standalone novel, to Peter Borland at his longtime publisher, Atria Books. The O’Connor entries will be the 20th and 21st books in the series. The standalone, Atria said, is “an American family epic” that is in the style of Krueger’s previous standalone bestsellers Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates represented Krueger.
NPR Reporter’s ‘Lost Year’ Goes to PublicAffairs
For PublicAffairs, Ben Adams took world English rights to Anya Kamenetz’s The Lost Year. The author is an education correspondent for NPR, and the book, the publisher said, tells “the story of how Covid slashed open the last real safety net America has—public education—and exposed the anti-child fault lines of our society, fundamentally changing a generation of children and families.” The author was represented by Jim Levine at Levine Greenberg Rostan.
Online Investigator Sells Book to B’bury
At Bloomsbury USA, Ben Hyman nabbed world English rights (in a joint acquisition with Bloomsbury UK) to Eliot Higgins’s We Are Bellingcat. The author is the founder of an online detective organization called Bellingcat, which bills itself as “an independent international collective of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists using open source and social media investigation to probe a variety of subjects.” The book, Bloomsbury said, offers “a riveting look” at the pioneering methods the group uses and how they exposed everything from “Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 to Syrian war crimes.” Elyse Cheney at the Cheney Agency handled the U.S. sale of the title, which Bloomsbury plans to publish in winter 2021.
