Macmillan scoops Snowden memoir in global deal

Pan Macmillan has scooped NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s "incredible" memoir as part of a global deal by Macmillan Publishers.

Permanent Record will be published around the world on 17th September, with Pan Mac handling the UK, Australia, India, and South Africa release. World rights for the book were sold by Devon Mazzone, director of subsidiary rights for FSG, Holt and Metropolitan Books.

In the US it will be published by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt, and in Germany by S. Fischer Verlag. The book was edited by Metropolitan Books under the leadership of Sara Bershtel, senior vice-president and publisher.

In 2013, Snowden, a former NSA contractor and CIA agent, shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed the US government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every phone call, text message, and email ever sent. In Permanent Record, he tells his story, including helping to create the system of mass surveillance and the crisis of conscience that led him to try to bring it down by leaking a cache of top secret documents.

John Sargent, c.e.o. of Macmillan Publishers, said: “Edward Snowden decided at the age of 29 to give up his entire future for the good of his country.

“He displayed enormous courage in doing so, and like him or not, his is an incredible American story. There is no doubt that the world is a better and more private place for his actions. Macmillan is enormously proud to publish Permanent Record.”