Serena Wins Doubles at Random House

Tennis champion Serena Williams has sold North American rights to two untitled books to Random House executive editor Jamia Wilson and publisher Andy Ward. The deal was brokered by Suzanne Gluck at WME. Both books will be edited by Wilson. Random House said the first will be “a full and open account of Williams’s remarkable life,” while the second will offer “rules for living” that draw on her life experiences and her desire to “lift a diverse and emergent generation of young women whose aspirations are not confined to the court.” No pub date has been set for either book.

 

Gallery Gets Ready for Prime Time

Former NFL star and current University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders—aka Coach Prime—has sold world rights to Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win on and off the Field to Charles Suitt at 13A, an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books. The deal was handled by Constance Schwartz-Morini at SMAC Entertainment and Tabetha Plummer at Plummer Law Group. Gallery executive editor Pamela Cannon will edit. Gallery said the “motivational playbook” will offer personal stories and “winning strategies for success in business, sports, and life.” Elevate and Dominate will be published in March 2024.

One Signal Gets a ‘History’ Lesson

Nicholas Ciani at Atria’s One Signal imprint has acquired Erasing History by Yale philosopher Jason Stanley (How Fascism Works), after an auction. The deal was negotiated by Stephanie Steiker at Regal Hoffmann & Associates. One Signal said the book will place the “present-day attacks on public schools, universities, anti-racism, and gender ideology” within “a global historical and theoretical framework” that illuminates how authoritarianism takes root—and how to effectively fight back. Publication is expected in fall 2024.

Typing Lady’ Inks Two with Viking

Ibrahim Ahmad at Viking has acquired North American rights to two books from Booker finalist and 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Ruth Ozeki: The Typing Lady: Short Fictions, which Viking called “a playful, ominous, and sometimes surreal first collection of stories,” and To Live for Now, a novel set in Japan’s tumultuous Taisho era that weaves “a vivid tapestry of love, loss, and political radicalism in a country on the brink of war.” The deal was struck by Molly Friedrich and Lucy Carson at the Friedrich Agency. The Typing Lady is expected to pub in fall 2025, with To Live for Now to follow in 2027.


Broome’s ‘Fleas’ Land at Mariner

Rakia Clark at Mariner Books has acquired North American rights to Brian Broome’s debut novel, Get up with Fleas. The deal was handled by Danielle Chiotti at Upstart Crow. Mariner said the novel takes place in a Black neighborhood in the Midwest in the 1980s and follows what happens “when gunshots go off and a man everyone knows goes missing.” Broome’s memoir Punch Me up to the Gods won the Kirkus Prize in 2021. A pub date has not yet been set.


Ballantine Takes on Fielding’s ‘Secret’

Internationally renowned thriller writer Joy Fielding has sold U.S. rights to Jenny Cooper Has a Secret to Ballantine executive editor Anne Speyer. The deal was brokered by Tracy Fisher at WME. The novel, WME said, centers on “a startling confession from a woman with advanced dementia, which sets off an eerie series of events that causes the narrator to question the woman’s innocence—and her own sanity.” Jenny Cooper Has a Secret is scheduled for a summer 2025 publication.


Correction: an earlier version of this article listed Suzanne Gluck as with ICM. Gluck is at WME.