(DailyMail)…After months of tense battling between 20 publishers desperate for a big money windfall in the long run, Amanda Knox finally has a book deal.Knox, 24, of Seattle, Washington, has signed for a reported $4million with Harper Collins to write about her murder conviction and acquittal in Italy.  While the deal will be respite for her family who spent $1 million just dealing with her trial, it will provoke anger from her alleged victim’s relatives.  The deal is expected to distress the family of Meredith Kercher, 21, the British student who lived with Knox in Perugia, found in a pool of blood. 

Knox, who was jailed for four years in Perugia, has only spoken publically once when she arrived back in the U.S. following her release last October.  Her family spent more than $1million in legal, travel and living costs to be near her during the murder trial in Italy – and even more on her appeal.

Knox’s parents, Edda Mellas and Curt Knox, who divorced when she was aged just two, have put on a united front and took out second mortgages.  “Knox will give a full and unflinching account of the events that led to her arrest in Perugia,” a HarperCollins spokesman said on Thursday.  He added that she will talk about her ‘struggles with the complexities of the Italian judicial system’ and read back journals she kept in prison.

Knox’s parents, Edda Mellas and Curt Knox, who divorced when she was aged just two, have put on a united front and took out second mortgages.  “Knox will give a full and unflinching account of the events that led to her arrest in Perugia,” a HarperCollins spokesman said on Thursday.  He added that she will talk about her ‘struggles with the complexities of the Italian judicial system’ and read back journals she kept in prison.

The book, currently untitled, is tentatively scheduled for early 2013. The mammoth financial agreement was disclosed by the New York Times.  It was negotiated by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, who has worked for President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush.  Some 20 publishers were interested in the book and Knox met with seven, all of whom submitted bids during a recent auction.  Harper Collins publisher Jonathan Burnham said that Knox, who studied creative writing, would work with a collaborator.  The company should be able to recoup some of its investment by selling TV interview rights on the back of the book.

Broadcasters are banned from paying for interviews but they routinely get around it by buying the rights to the interviewee’s book instead.  Her editor will be Claire Wachtel, whose other authors have included crime novelist Dennis Lehane and journalist Cokie Roberts.  (Read more…)