DEAL OF THE WEEK
Gleason’s Memoir Goes to Knopf
Knopf’s Peter Gethers won world rights at auction to Steve Gleason’s Live Impossible from Chad Luibl at Janklow & Nesbit. Gleason is a former NFL player who, after being diagnosed with ALS in 2011, founded the charity Team Gleason, which helps people with ALS. Knopf said the book, written with Jeff Duncan, tells “a life-affirming story about disability and recovery, fatherhood and faith, self-transformation and the power of possibility.” The debut memoir is slated for 2024.
Winning Gets ‘Negative’ at Putnam
Josh Winning sold Burn the Negative at auction to Mark Tavani at G.P. Putnam’s Sons in a two-book, world rights agreement. The horror novel, Putnam said, is a “twisty homage to ’80s and ’90s slasher films.” The story follows a journalist on assignment in Los Angeles who finds the streaming series she’s reporting on is “inspired by the cursed horror flick she starred in as a child actor.” Kristina Pérez at the Zeno Agency represented Winning in the deal.
Kroll Sells Decks, Book to Sterling
For six figures, Sterling Ethos’s Kate Zimmerman bought three oracle decks, one tarot deck, and a book by the artist and medium Marcella Kroll. The first of the decks, Sacred Symbols Oracle, is set for fall 2022, and it, like the other decks, will “encourage readers on their paths to connecting to themselves, each other, their ancestors, nature, and the otherworldly,” Sterling said. The book, Healing the Liminal, will share the author’s “experience and philosophy on marginalized identities working toward healing, as a person of mixed race.” Adriana Stimola at Sti-mola Literary Studio handled the world rights agreement.
Hering Enjoys ‘Silence’ at Penguin
In a 12-publisher auction, world rights to Unlearning Silence by Elaine Lin Hering were acquired by Meg Leder at Penguin Life. Hering is a Harvard Law School lecturer and Triad Consulting Group managing partner, and the book, the publisher said, is “an exploration of how we’ve learned to be silent, how we’ve silenced others, and how we might choose another way through recognizing and unlearning unconscious patterns so we can make more intentional choices about how to show up in business and in life.” Unlearning Silence is set for spring 2024.
Atria Lets Córdova’s ‘Angels’ Fly
Melanie Iglesias Perez at Atria bought world English and Spanish rights to The Fall of Rebel Angels by Zoraida Córdova. Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media represented the author. The novel, Townsend said, is a “love story between a woman suspected of murdering her former lover and a fallen angel who is cursed to search for his wings on Earth every one hundred years.” The Fall of Rebel Angels is set for fall 2023.
S&S ‘Secures’ Menanno
Therapist Julia Menanno, who runs the popular @thesecurerelationship Instagram account, sold North American rights to Secure Love to Simon & Schuster’s Stephanie Frerich. ICM Partners’ Alexandra Machinist brokered the deal after what S&S described as a “heated” auction. The publisher said the book, set for 2023, “reveals how to use attachment theory to create real and sustained change in a relationship, and to make it last.”
St. Martins Re-ups Hepworth
Bestseller Sally Hepworth has inked a new three-book deal with St. Martin’s Press. Jennifer Enderlin took world English rights to the titles from Rob Weisbach at Rob Weisbach Creative Management. Novels by Hepworth, including The Good Sister, have sold more than one million copies worldwide, St. Martin’s said.
