Amanda Knox book rights sold for $4 million

LOS ANGELES-Agence France-Presse

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Amanda Knox, who spent four years in jail in Italy on charges of murdering her British roommate before being acquitted, has signed a book deal with HarperCollins, the publisher said Thursday.
 
HarperCollins, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., said Knox's memoir is tentatively scheduled for publication next year.
 
The publisher did not reveal financial details but The New York Times said Knox had sold the rights to her story for nearly $4 million.
 
"Amanda Knox will share the truth about her terrifying ordeal," HarperCollins said in a statement.

"Knox will give a full and unflinching account of the events that led to her arrest in Perugia and her struggles with the complexities of the Italian judicial system.
 
"Aided by journals she kept during her imprisonment, Knox will talk about her harrowing experience at the hands of the Italian police and later prison guards and inmates," the publishing house said.

"She will reveal never-before-told details surrounding her case, and describe how she used her inner strength and strong family ties to cope with the most challenging time of her young life," the publisher said.
 
A court in Perugia, northern Italy, freed the American Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in October of last year after acquitting them of the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher.
 
Knox and Sollecito had initially been sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison.
 
HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham said the book "will give Knox an opportunity to tell the story in full detail, for the first time.
 
"It will be the story of a crime and a trial, but also a moving account of a young woman's struggle to cope with a nightmarish ordeal that placed her at the center of a media storm, and led to her imprisonment," Burnham said.
 
According to the Times, HarperCollins acquired the rights after a "heated auction among publishing houses that stretched for days." The Times said several publishers had submitted bids for the book, including Crown, part of Random House; St. Martin's Press, a Macmillan unit; Simon & Schuster's Atria; and Penguin Group USA's Dutton.
 
Knox hired Washington attorney Robert Barnett of the law firm Williams & Connolly to negotiate the deal.
 
Italian prosecutors on Tuesday lodged an appeal against Knox's acquittal.
 
Knox, who returned to her home town of Seattle, Washington immediately after her acquittal, cannot be extradited back to Italy.