HC in Worldwide Deal for Winehouse Tribute

Katya Shipster, publishing director of HarperNonFiction at HarperCollins UK, and Lisa Sharkey, senior v-p and director of creative development at HC US, acquired world, all-language rights to Amy Winehouse: In Her Words. Maggie Hanbury at the Hanbury Agency negotiated the sale on behalf of the Winehouse estate. HC said the book will be “an intimate tribute” to the late singer-songwriter, told “through never-before-seen journals, handwritten lyrics, and family photographs,” and which will also feature a foreword by her parents. Dey Street Books will release the title in the U.S. on August 29, and it will be published in the U.K. August 31.

'Teddy’ Heads to Harper

Harper v-p and executive editor Sara Nelson bought North American rights to two novels by Emily Dunlay in a sale brokered by Katie Greenstreet at Paper Literary in the U.K. The first, Teddy, is set in 1960s Rome and follows the wife of an American diplomat as she tries to contain a scandal from her past, Harper said. “Emily Dunlay has taken Mad Men’s Betty Draper and channeled Curtis Sittenfeld or Taylor Jenkins Reid to create a delightful and delightfully maddening heroine all her own,” Nelson elaborated. Nelson is copublishing Teddy with Katie Bowden at Fourth Estate, Harper’s sibling U.K. imprint. The novel is slated for release in 2024.

Grand Central Takes Adult Debut

North American rights to YA author Daniel Aleman’s first adult novel, Sorry to Disappoint, were acquired at auction by Grand Central’s Rachael Kelly. The publisher described the book as “a suspenseful dark comedy about a struggling gay writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead—and must enlist the help of his literary agent to get rid of the body and spin the entire misadventure into his next big book.” Pete Knapp at Park & Fine Literary and Media represented Aleman, and publication is planned for fall 2024.

Bloomsbury Buys Culture War Chronicle

In an exclusive submission, Ben Hyman at Bloomsbury acquired world rights to The Perfect Moment by National Book Critics Circle Award winner Isaac Butler. Bloomsbury called the book “a military history of the first decade in the culture wars.” It chronicles the clashes over obscenity and freedom of speech in the 1980s and ’90s that “pitted the religious right against American artists such as Andres Serrano, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Nan Goldin, and Robert Mapplethorpe.” Alia Hanna Habib at the Gernert Company handled the deal.


Haunting Debut Goes to Viking

Viking Penguin’s Ibrahim Ahmad bought North American rights to Carson Faust’s debut novel, as part of a two-book deal negotiated by Annie Hwang at Ayesha Pande Literary. When the Living Haunt the Dead is a Native American Southern gothic, Viking said, that “follows the inexplicable disappearance of a young girl, weaving together mythology and folklore to trace her family’s hauntings across five generations.” Faust has won fellowships from both the McKnight and Jerome foundations.


Raasch Rom-Com Ambles to Bramble

Monique Patterson at Tor Publishing Group’s Bramble imprint paid six figures for U.S., Canadian, and open market rights to three adult novels by bestselling YA author Sara Raasch. The deal, handled by Amy Stapp at Wolfson Literary Agency, includes Raasch’s adult debut, Santa’s Son Kisses Halloween Prince. Bramble described Santa’s Son as “a joyful and irreverent holiday rom-com about the rogue prince of Christmas, who falls for the totally off-limits but irresistible heir to Halloween.” Publication is set for fall 2024.


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