DEAL OF THE WEEK

Kelly Brings ‘Fight’ to One Signal

In a six-figure world rights deal, One Signal assistant editor Nicholas Ciani bought Kim Kelly’s Fight Like Hell. Kelly is a freelance journalist who focuses on labor issues and has contributed to publications like Esquire, the New Republic, and the Washington Post; she also writes a column for Teen Vogue. The book, the Atria imprint said, is a “marginalized peoples’ history of labor in the United States, focusing on workers who have made crucial contributions to the labor movement but whose stories have often been overlooked.” One Signal added that the title will be “a rallying cry to those who want to organize and build the better world we all deserve.” Kelly was represented by Chad Luibl at Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

FROM THE U.S.

Royal Brothers Bio Lands at HarperCollins

Lisa Sharkey at HarperCollins U.S., in conjunction with Arabella Pike at HarperCollins U.K., preempted Robert Lacey’s Battle of Brothers: William and Harry—The Friendship and the Feuds. Sharkey, who is senior v-p of creative development, and Pike, who is publishing director of HC U.K.’s William Collins imprint, will copublish the title on October 20. The book, which explores the complex relationship between the U.K.’s Prince William and Prince Harry, will, the publisher said, lay bare what happens when “two sons were raised for vastly different futures.” It will also expose the fracturing bond “at the heart of the royal family’s recent woes.” Lacey, a British historian and bestselling biographer (Grace: Her Lives—Her Loves and A Brief Life of the Queen), was represented in the world English rights agreement by Jonathan Pegg at London’s Jonathan Pegg Literary Agency.

Nelsons Talk ‘Family Band’ for RH

Country music legend Willie Nelson and his sister Bobbie Nelson sold the memoir Me and Sister Bobbie to Random House, where Ben Greenberg took world rights. The book, which is slated for September 15, is subtitled True Tales of the Family Band and highlights the bond that formed between the siblings after they were abandoned by their parents when they were young. “Told in alternating chapters,” RH said, the memoir “weaves together Willie and Bobbie’s journeys as they experienced them both side by side and apart, with powerful and emotional never-before-told recollections from their personal lives and careers.” In a separate deal, Doubleday Books for Young Readers’ editor-in-chief Frances Gilbert bought world rights to a picture book, Sister, Brother, Family: Our Childhood in Music, which is set for fall 2021. Chris Barton will write the picture book with the Nelsons, who were represented by David Vigliano at Vigliano Associates in both deals.

Grove Feels the Byrne

Actor and producer Gabriel Byrne sold a memoir titled Walking with Ghosts to Grove Atlantic. Elisabeth Schmitz and Katie Raissian took U.S. and Canadian rights from Anna Stein at ICM Partners. Ghosts, which is slated for January 2021, is, Grove said, “a portrait of Byrne’s childhood in Ireland and the journey that brought him to some of the most iconic roles in theater and on screen.”

St. Martin’s Nabs Pilcher Collection

St. Martin’s Press will publish a new collection of short stories by Rosamunde Pilcher, who died last year at age 94. Charles Spicer took North American rights to A Place Like Home, which, the publisher said, features 15 stories that have never appeared in book form. Pilcher, who also wrote under the pseudonym Jane Fraser, was a British novelist known for romance titles and general fiction. St. Martin’s described her as “a multimillion-copy international bestseller.” The deal also marks the last one brokered by veteran British agent Felicity Bryan, who died on June 21 at age 74, after battling cancer.