DEAL OF THE WEEK
Nix’s Adult Debut Goes to Harper
David Pomerico at Harper Voyager paid six figures for North American rights to Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer by Garth Nix, in an exclusive submission. Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management handled the deal for Nix, an internationally bestselling author known for his children’s and YA fantasy novels. The upcoming collection, Grinberg said, compiles for the first time eight stories featuring Sir Hereward (knight, artillerist, swords-man, mercenary for hire, and ill-starred lover) and Mr. Fitz (puppet, sorcerer, lore master, practitioner of arcane arts, and wielder of sorcerous needles), and follows the pair’s travels “in a treacherous world of magic, gunpowder, and adventure.” The collection will also feature an original story, “The Field of Fallen Foes.” Publication is slated for summer 2023.
St. Martin’s Buys Levings’s Memoir
St. Martin’s Press executive editor Eileen Rothschild acquired world English rights from Trinity McFadden at the Bindery to A Well Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy. In the memoir, Tia Levings describes growing up in a fundamentalist evangelical
culture and enduring church-sanctioned domestic abuse. After breaking loose from the church, St. Martin’s said, Levings became an activist for those affected by religious trauma, exposing the realities of Christian fundamentalism. As a writer, creator, and content specialist, she “explores the female narrative in patriarchal spaces.” In spring 2023, Levings will appear in an Amazon Prime documentary on the Institute of Basic Life Principle, which some former members charge is a cult. A Well Trained Wife is set to be released in winter 2024.
Kelly Tells Everything to Holt
In a preempt, Henry Holt executive editor Serena Jones bought North American rights to Tell Me Everything, a coming-of-age memoir by film and television actor Minka Kelly. The publisher described the book as a “gripping memoir of family, forgiveness, and the importance of finding inner strength.” Though Kelly seems to have a glamorous life, Holt said, it’s far from painless. “The desire to tell my story on my own terms felt important,” Kelly explained. “Most of all, my book is a tribute to my mother and all working-class single mothers who were, simply put, dealt a bad hand.” Albert Lee at UTA represented Kelly, and publication is scheduled for May 2023.
Wan’s ‘Women’ Goes to Graydon House
Melanie Fried at Graydon House acquired North American and audio rights to two books from Sophie Wan. The deal, brokered by Michaela Whatnall at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, includes Wan’s debut novel, Women of Good
Fortune. Graydon House described that novel as being “in the vein of Counterfeit and Crazy Rich Asians,” adding that it’s “set against a high-society Shanghai wedding, in which the reluctant bride and her two best friends, each with their own personal motives and fed up with the way society treats women, launch a heist to steal all the gift money on the big day.” As the plot moves forward, “the women reach a crossroads that may require the ultimate sacrifice: their friendship.” Women of Good Fortune is scheduled for 2024.
Bloomsbury Wins Wide Awakes Book
Bloomsbury’s Ben Hyman has acquired world English rights to Wide Awake by Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian curator and author of The Age of Acrimony. Bloomsbury called Wide Awake “the first narrative history of the Wide Awakes, the anti-slavery youth protest movement that played a pivotal and under-acknowledged role in the 1860 election and the onset of
the Civil War.” Katherine Flynn at Kneerim & Williams
represented Grinspan.
