The F**k It! List author Melanie Cantor strikes six-figure deal with Transworld
Transworld has acquired two new books by Melanie Cantor, author of The F**k It! List, in a six-figure deal.
Publisher Susanna Wadeson and commissioning editor Olamide Olatunji-Bello bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Felicity Blunt and Rosie Pierce at Curtis Brown. The first book in the deal, Sex and the Ex, will be published in February 2027, with the second to follow a year later.
Sex and the Ex tells the story of successful fashion designer Hannah, who is forced back into living with her ex-husband, three years after a very messy divorce. Wadeson said: “Melanie just gets better and better. I adored the wit of Happy Endings and then thousands more of us fell in love with The F**k It! List – more than 100,000 copies sold and still counting. Sex and the Ex deserves to top that. Even more warm, brilliantly funny, and relatable – very exciting.”
Olatunji-Bello said Cantor “has such a gift for capturing the messy and complex in-betweens in a relationship and this book is the perfect example”, adding: “It has been an absolute joy to work on this hilarious and deeply moving story and I can’t wait for readers to fall in love with Hannah and Charlie.”
Cantor worked for many years in PR and as a celebrity talent agent. She hosted the Channel 4 show Making Space and is the author of Happy Endings and The F**k It! List (Transworld), one of WH Smith’s picks for its Travel Book Club earlier this year. Sex and the Ex is her third novel.
On the deal, Cantor said: “I have loved working with Susanna and Ola, Felicity and Rosie, on two new books that I hope readers will devour. Even though I don’t want summer to end, I can’t wait for next February.”
Blunt and Pierce commented: “Melanie’s books are filled with both laugh-out-loud moments and extraordinary insight. We are thrilled to have Sex and the Ex ready to share with her rapidly growing readership and for whatever comes next.”
