DEAL OF THE WEEK
Yang Goes ‘Forward’ with Crown
Entrepreneur, presidential candidate, and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang sold his next book to Crown executive editor Paul Whitlach. Set for release in October, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy will examine what it is really like to run for president, while also issuing a “scathing indictment of America’s era of institutional failure,” the publisher said. In the book, it added, Yang argues that a series of reforms, including data rights and fact-based governance, are the keys to “jump-starting political and economic systems that are breaking down.” Crown took world rights from David Larabell at CAA.
Green’s ‘Stardust’ Settles at Hanover
In a three-book deal, Hanover Square Press senior editor John Glynn acquired North American and audio rights to bestselling author Jane Green’s novel Sister Stardust, as well as her next two books. Sister Stardust, the publisher said, will be a work of historical fiction set in the 1960s in London and Marrakesh that “reimagines the glamorous and tragic life of fashion icon and socialite Talitha Getty and the opulent counter-culture scene she presided over.” The deal was brokered by Wendy Sherman at Wendy Sherman Associates and Alex Glass at Glass Literary Management on behalf of Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown UK. An April 2022 publication is planned.
Davis Finds a Home at HarperOne
Judith Curr, president and publisher of HarperOne, acquired North American rights, including audio, from CAA to Finding Me, a memoir from actor and producer Viola Davis. The publisher described the book as “a true hero’s journey” that will “capture the hearts and minds of Ms. Davis’s legions of fans around the world.” Davis has a host of credits to her name, including an Oscar-winning performance in Fences. She also picked up an Emmy for her work in How to Get Away with Murder. The memoir, set for release next April, is being published in partnership with Ebony.
Bantam Dell Tackles ‘Jackal’
In a six-figure preempt, Jenny Chen at Bantam Dell took world English rights to two novels by Erin E. Adams, a first-generation Haitian American writer and theater artist. Kerry D’Agostino at Curtis Brown Ltd. brokered the deal. She said Jackal, Adams’s debut novel, follows a young Black woman who, after returning to small-town Appalachia, “discovers something in the nearby woods that’s been taking Black girls for years, and now it’s taken her best friend’s daughter.” The second novel is a mystery involving Haitian mysticism and spiritual deaths. Jackal is scheduled for a fall 2022 release.
Avery Votes for Reed
Steven Reed, who was elected the first Black mayor of Montgomery, Ala., in November 2019, sold his first book, a memoir, to Joanna Ng at Penguin Random House’s Avery imprint. In Raising Kings: Lessons in Manhood from Civil Rights’ Greatest Generation, written with Fagan Harris, Reed “shares lessons in leadership and fatherhood that he learned from his father and hopes to pass on to the next generation,” according to the publisher. Ng took North American rights from Peter McGuigan at Ultra Literary on behalf of Traci Wilkes Smith at CSE. Raising Kings is slated for fall 2022.
Agora Buys Journalist’s Debut
Journalist Sena Desai Gopal’s debut novel, The 86th Village, was acquired by Chantelle Aimée Osman at Polis Books imprint Agora Books. The novel, the publisher said, revolves around plans for a government dam that could submerge 86 villages in southern India, but when an orphan girl appears, events take a series of unexpected turns. Priya Doraswamy at Lotus Lane Literary sold world rights to Agora.
