DEAL OF THE WEEK
President’s Niece Inks New Deal
Mary L. Trump, niece of Donald Trump and author of the recent bestseller Too Much and Never Enough, sold a new book to George Witte at St. Martin’s Press in a world rights agreement. The Reckoning is set for July 2021 and will, SMP said, “examine America’s national trauma, rooted in our history but dramatically exacerbated by the impact of current events and the Trump administration’s corrupt and immoral policies.” Trump has a PhD in psychology and has taught graduate courses in trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology. She was represented by Pilar Queen at United Talent Agency.
FROM THE U.S.
Oliveras Does a Double at Montlake
Priscilla Oliveras closed a two-book agreement with Montlake. Maria Gomez bought world rights to the titles at auction for six figures from Rebecca Strauss at DeFiore and Company. The first novel under contract, A West Side Love Story, is, Montlake said, “a Shakespeare-inspired #OwnVoices romance billed as Gentefied meets West Side Story, featuring a familia of foster sisters in an all-female mariachi band.” The book is slated for summer 2022.
FSG Pays Up for Faizal’s Duology
For Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Janine O’Malley bought world English rights, in an exclusive submission, to Hafsah Faizal’s A Tempest of Tea. Josh Adams at Adams Literary sold the title in a two-book deal rumored to be in the mid-six figures. He said the novel, part of a planned duology, was “pitched as King Arthur meets Peaky Blinders with vampires” and is set in a place called Ettenia, which is “an amalgamation of 1920s and Victorian London.” It follows “a gang of outcasts in a deadly heist led by Arthie Casimir to save her tearoom, which fronts an illegal blood house.” Tempest is set for spring 2022.
Hatmaker’s Cookbook Goes to HMH
Bestselling author Jen Hatmaker (Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire) sold her debut cookbook, Feed These People, to Stephanie Fletcher at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Hatmaker, who hosts the For the Love podcast, was represented in the world rights deal by Curtis Yates and Mike Salisbury at Yates & Yates. HMH said the book features “delicious recipes for real people, all infused with Jen’s hilarity and candor,” and that it is full of “her signature Southern wit and generosity of spirit.”
Klosterman Dissects ’90s for Penguin
The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman, bestselling author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, was acquired in a world rights agreement by Scott Moyers at Penguin Press. The publisher said The Nineties is “a kaleidoscopic cultural history of the entire decade, covering Ross Perot, predigital consciousness, postgrunge media, Zima, ‘Cop Killer,’ Columbine, the notion of selling out, Bill Clinton’s legacy, Michael Jordan’s baseball career, Titanic, and hundreds of other touchpoints that clarify and recontextualize the conclusion of the 20th century.” Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Rostan sold the book, which is slated for spring 2022.
Astra Wins Bee’s Memoir
For Astra House, Alessandra Bastagli nabbed world English rights to Current Affairs editor Vanessa A. Bee’s Home Bound. The debut memoir was sold at auction by Elias Altman at Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents. The publisher called Home Bound a work of “identity and discovery” in which Bee recounts her “journey from poverty and homelessness in Europe and the U.S. to graduating from Harvard Law School.” She was born in Cameroon and adopted by her aunt in France, then moved to Nevada as a teenager. Astra said Bee asks the question, “What is home? Is it the country we’re born in, the body we possess, or the name that literally marks us?” Home Bound is set for fall 2022.
Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to the Montlake Romance imprint; the imprint is now called, simply, Montlake.
