Steadman nets two-book deal with S&S

Simon & Schuster UK has signed a two-book deal with actor and author Catherine Steadman.

A new deal for UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio, for two more books has been brokered by Camilla Bolton of Darley Anderson Literary Agency with fiction publishing director Jo Dickinson. The first book in the new deal will be published in hardback in January 2021, with book two following in 2022.

Catherine Steadman’s debut novel, Something in the Water, was acquired by S&S UK two years ago at the London Book Fair. The hardback was a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, the publisher said, with rights sold in 28 languages. Film rights have been optioned by Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Productions.

Steadman said: "I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with editor Jo Dickinson and to have found such a supportive home at Simon & Schuster UK. Their creativity, passion and ambition for their writers is incredibly exciting."

Bolton said: "Two years ago at the London Book Fair Catherine celebrated her first UK deal with S&S and to be here now celebrating a very exciting new deal after all her huge achievements with Something In The Water feels like a perfect place to be. We’re incredibly excited to keep working together and for all the successes to come."

Dickinson revealed she was "thrilled" with the new deal. She said: "Something in the Water has launched her writing career in spectacular style and I feel certain she is destined for great things."

Steadman has acted in leading roles in dramas broadcast on the BBC, Sky, ITV and Channel 4, as well as on stage in the West End.