Money memoir from Otegha Uwagba to 4th Estate

Entrepreneur and Little Black Book author Otegha Uwagba’s “part-memoir, part-cultural commentary”, We Need To Talk About Money, has gone to 4th Estate in a “significant acquisition”, with international deals also flooding in as well as TV interest.

Michelle Kane, PR and publishing director at 4th Estate, made the acquisition for world English language rights from Emma Paterson at Aitken Alexander. The project has attracted “significant interest from TV producers”, the publisher said, while Paterson revealed there is already strong international interest from publishers around the world.

We Need to Talk About Money is billed as “part-memoir, part-cultural commentary”, and “a deeply honest account of Otegha’s personal relationship with money over the past 28 years”. It highlights the parallels between her experiences and those of women the world over, HarperCollins said, whilst exploring what the similarities between our experiences – made universal by virtue of our gender – say about the world.

Private education and property are featured, along with women and salaries, as well as the “commoditisation of race, invisible labour and the beauty tax”.

“We Need To Talk About Money is a journey through the most urgent discussion points of our day, from the personal to the political and back again, and with the rigour, honesty and wit of Otegha’s voice as our guide,” 4th Estate said.

As well as her writing, Uwagba is a brand consultant and founder of Women Who – a London-based platform that connects, supports, and inspires creative working women. Her debut, the career guide Little Black Book: A Toolkit For Working Women, was originally self-published in 2016 before being taken on by 4th Estate and selling more than 31,485 copies for £136,911 since June 2017, according to Nielsen BookScan.

“With this new book Otegha is elevating the current conversations around women and money, and taking things to the level they need to be at to affect change,” Kane said. “Just like the mighty Little Black Book empowered women and gave them the tools they needed to make positive career changes, this new book will go that step further and compel them to a level of personal honesty with themselves, in turn encouraging every day discourse around a topic long considered to be off limits.’

Uwagba, who lives in south London, said: “I am thrilled to once again be working with Michelle and the rest of the 4th Estate team, whose energy, ambition and commitment to my writing has consistently blown me away. My hope is that We Need To Talk About Money will be the jumping off point for a generation of women to begin having the long overdue conversations about money we're all so desperate to have, and in telling my own money story I want to explore the commonalities amongst all women's experiences with money, in order to help other women better understand themselves, or at the very least feel less alone.”

Paterson, who joined Aitken Alexander earlier this month after an eight-year stint at RCW, said: “It’s been hugely exciting to see Little Black Book establish itself as the essential toolkit for working women everywhere, and I know that Michelle and the 4th Estate team will bring the same flair and ambition to their publication of Otegha’s vital, game-changing next book. We Need To Talk About Money won’t just start the conversation, it will change it entirely.”