Book Deals: The Round-Up

Once again, there have been a few more pieces of news about various book deals going on in the publishing world, so I wanted to make a post to let you know about them, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on yet another celebrity getting a coveted book deal!

Tulisa signs three book deal with Headline publishers, including two fiction titles
Headline has secured world rights to an autobiography and two novels by N-Dubz and “X-Factor” star, Tulisa Contostavlos.

Deputy publishing director Sarah Emsley acquired the three books at auction through Jonathan Shalit of talent agency ROAR Management, with “stiff competition” from six other publishers. The publisher plans to release her autobiography in autumn 2012, with the two novels to follow consecutively in 2013 and 2014.

Twenty-three-year-old Contostavlos grew up in Camden, north London, and acted as the sole carer of her mother when she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. She first rose to fame as the singer in hip-hop group N-Dubz, with the group winning four MOBO awards. She became a judge on ITV1 talent show “The X Factor” last year, mentoring girl group Little Mix to become the first group winners of the show. She is currently working on her first solo album.

Emsley said: “Tulisa is an incredibly talented writer and musician and is an inspiration for young women everywhere . . . Tulisa’s story has incredible breadth and depth for someone so young, and we are absolutely thrilled that she has chosen Headline to be her publisher.”

Headline m.d. Jane Morpeth added that Headline is “equally as thrilled to be publishing her novels” as her autobiography, and said: “As the early material shows, Tulisa has a wonderful grasp of plot and characterisation, and a clear, strong voice runs throughout her work.”

Pan Macmillan signs three book deal with Lucinda Riley 
Pan Macmillan has acquired the latest novel by Hothouse Flower author Lucinda Riley, with the author
moving from Penguin after Pan Macmillan "beat off competition" from three other publishers.

Fiction publisher Jeremy Trevathan and assistant editor Catherine Richards bought UK and Commonwealth rights for three new novels by Riley from Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown.

The first new title, The Light Behind the Window, is set in Provence and Paris between the present day and the Second World War, telling the story of a young woman who is the sole inheritor of her family's chateau, and that of her father, whose role in the Resistance has been kept secret for 50 years.

Trevathan said: "Lucinda is writing the sort of fiction that people want to read today, as evidenced from her current sales; we jumped at the chance to publish her. We're absolutely thrilled."

I can't say I'm madly happy about the news of Tulisa being signed when there are so many talented authors out there who will never get the opportunities she is being given, but there you go! Congratulations to Pan and Lucinda Riley for their new deal too! Articles are taken from The Bookseller.