Reinert Signs Major Deal with Flatiron
In a preempt, Megan Lynch and Caroline Bleeke at Flatiron Books have acquired world rights to the Eventing and the Briar Hill book series by self-published author Natalie Keller Reinert. The deal also includes an as-yet-untitled novel that will launch a new series. Lacy Lynch at Dupree Miller brokered the seven-figure agreement. Flatiron said Reinert’s series, which center around the equestrian community of Ocala, Fla., “touch on themes of female friendship, self-determination, romance,” and explore the “partnerships—animal and human—that help us thrive.”
Max Monroe Says Yes to Entangled
Jessica Turner, associate publisher and editorial director of Entangled, has taken North American rights to romance author duo Max Monroe’s What I Should Have Said. Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group handled the deal. Gottlieb said the book is about “a runaway bride who meets a grumpy artist, and sparks fly as they navigate tangled pasts and unexpected truths in a Vermont summer of secrets and transformation.” Max Monroe have written some 30 books together that have sold more than two million copies combined, according to the publisher.
Josephine Baker Memoir to Tiny Reparations Books
After an auction, Emi Ikkanda at Tiny Reparations Books has acquired North American rights to Josephine Baker’s 1949 memoir, Fearless and Free. A world-famous entertainer, Baker was also a spy for the French Resistance during WWII and a civil rights activist who spoke alongside Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. But her memoir, while published in Europe and originally written in French, has never been published in English. Vintage Classics UK represented the rights to the English translation and will publish the U.K. edition simultaneously with Tiny Reparations Books in February 2025.
Atria Snags ‘Forever Strong’ Follow-ups
Atria Books associate publisher Michelle Herrera Mulligan has picked up world rights to two books by Gabrielle Lyon: The Forever Strong Playbook (with recipe developer Mindy Fox) and Forever Strong for Women. Joy Tutela at the David Black Literary Agency brokered the deal. Atria said Playbook, which will be published in fall 2025, will build on Lyon’s 2023 bestseller Forever Strong, with “easy-to-implement, practical solutions to help burn fat, fight heart disease, reverse diabetes, stay sharp, build muscle, and boost energy.” Forever Strong for Women will follow in 2026, and is described by the publisher as a guide to navigating “the physical, emotional, and mindset changes and challenges during a woman’s second half of life.”
Pegasus Takes Journo’s Debut Novel
Jessica Case at Pegasus Books has secured world rights to Pulitzer-winning journalist Steve Wick’s fiction debut, The Ruins. Michael Carlisle at InkWell Management negotiated the deal. Pegasus said the book is an “electric thriller set in midcentury Long Island where the grim horrors of a Nazi enclave collides with the manufacturing of the suburban dream.” Wick is the author of The Long Night, about journalist William L. Shirer’s experience reporting from Germany on the rise of the Nazis and on WWII. The Ruins will publish in February 2025.
Newbery Medalists Unite at Little, Brown
Margaret Raymo at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has bought world rights to J vs. K, by Newbery Medalists Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft. The deal was negotiated by Deneen C. Howell of Williams & Connolly (for Alexander) and Judith Hansen of Hansen Literary Management (for Craft). The publisher said the book is an illustrated middle grade novel about “the intense rivalry between the two most talented and creative fifth graders at Dean Ashley Public School.” Publication is set for summer 2025.
