Osbournes sign €3.2m book deal

British rock legend Ozzy Osbourne and his family have signed a €3.2m book deal, it emerged today.

The move follows the popularity of their fly-on-the-wall documentary show for MTV which is a massive hit in the United States and which starts broadcasting in the UK later this month.

The Osbourne family has sold the world rights to two books to Pocket Books which is part of New York-based publishing firm Simon & Shuster.

The company’s Adult Publishing Group president Carolyn Reidy made the acquisition.

She told PA News: ‘‘The Osbournes are a popular phenomenon of the first magnitude. Their appeal is multigenerational and covers the entire political and cultural spectrum.

‘‘We’re delighted to publish them at Simon & Shuster.’’

The deal is to involve a paperback tie-in to the MTV show plus a hardback family memoir. The tie-in is to published in November while the hardback will appear next spring.

The hardback will have memoirs told from the individual view points of each member of the Osbourne family - Ozzy, his manager wife Sharon, their 15-year-old son Jack and daughter Kelly, 16.

It will also feature the couple’s third child Aimee, 18, who declined to take part in the show and lived in a guest house during the six months of taping.

The company’s executive vice president and publisher Louise Burke, added: ‘‘It’s not often a book gets a chance to bite the head off of the bestseller lists.

‘‘I look forward to working with this unique family who have come to redefine our notions of the All-American family.’’

The books will be published in England by Simon and Schuster UK and in audio by Simon & Schuster Audio.

Osbourne, originally from Birmingham, has reportedly signed a multi-million pound deal for a second series of the hit reality programme which chronicles his family life in their Beverly Hills mansion.

The Osbournes was launched in the US earlier this year and is regularly watched by about six million people.

During filming, the family allowed MTV cameras access to their home for six days a week and only the master bedroom and bathrooms were off limits.