When seven-time GRAMMY winner Prince passed unexpectedly on April 21, 2016, it was approximately one month after he announced he had begun writing his memoir. "The good people of Random House have made me an offer I can't refuse," he said, describing his book deal with the publisher's Spiegel & Grau imprint during an invitation-only event with friends. "It's going to be called The Beautiful Ones ... You all still read books, right?"

Speaking with Cynthia Littleton on Variety's Strictly Business podcast, publishing superagent for ICM, Esther Newberg discussed making the deal with Prince and when we can expect the forthcoming memoir to be released.

"It will be out hopefully at next Christmas," Newberg told Variety.  "He wrote about 50 pages, in his own handwriting, and we had a writer hired to work with him who knew as much about Prince as anyone alive." Newberg was referring to The New Yorker's Dan Piepenbring. Working with someone who knew about his music in depth was evidently one of the star's chief concerns.

"At one point he asked me who my favorite musician was and I put my head down," she said. "I was embarrassed. I said, 'Well, I'm a Springsteen fan.' He said, 'So you brought your own music guy with you, didn't you, who knows my work?" She had a music-book editor with her from ICM who was indeed expert. "We took three editors to Minneapolis to meet with Prince at the same time. It's never been done before," Newberg explained. "We had to do it because I knew he would not want to meet individually with people the way sometimes authors do."

Prince "wrote it in longhand and what we may do is actually show those, the real pages," Newberg tipped, creating fresh anticipation for the long-awaited publication. "It will be a wonderful testament to a great songwriter and performer," she promised.

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