Pan Macmillan have bought World rights for three new novels by Adam Hamdy. Publishing Director, Vicki Mellor, negotiated for the rights from Hannah Sheppard. The first novel, Black Thirteen, begins a new series featuring ex-Mi6 officer Scott Pearce. In this international, adrenaline-inducing series, Scott Pearce is about to burn the espionage rulebook as he battles the rise of sinister forces in a world where the nation state no longer reigns supreme.
Adam Hamdy said “Black Thirteen is the culmination of two years’ research into the rise of extremism. In addition to being a taut, action-packed thriller, it reveals some of the causes of the social and political challenges we’re all facing… I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Vicki Mellor again and am excited to have a new home at Pan Macmillan, a publisher with such a rich history and track record of success.”
In more deal announcements, Polish rights to M.W.Craven’s The Puppet Show have been snapped up by Filia. This follows several other territories the novel has sold in: Germany (Weltbild); Czech Republic (Dobrovsky); Turkey (Arkadya Yayinlari); Russia (AST) and Slovakia (Ikar).
UK & Commonwealth rights to Andrew Ewart’s debut novel Forget Me, plus one untitled novel, have been bought by Ben Willis at Orion. Andrew was a finalist in the 2016 ITV Be A Bestseller competition. Forget Me blends together elements of psychological thriller / science fiction, and tells the story of a woman who, after an accident, leaves her husband an amnesiac and goes to extreme lengths to get his memory back. The book will be published in hardback in early 2020, and in mass market paperback in summer 2020.
Stuart Turton’s The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle just keeps gathering momentum and blowing us away. This week, it was announced that it would be both No. 1 in the Saturday Times bestseller paperback charts, meaning it is the bestselling book in the country across all branches of Waterstones, and No. 5 in the Sunday Times bestseller paperback charts, making it the No. 5 bestselling book across all bookshops in the country.
A huge congratulations to client Yvonne Singh, whose debut novel One Man’s Revolution, has scooped second place in the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2018. This prize is for unpublished fiction by UK Black and Asian women.
This week saw the publication of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Vol.2 (Blink Publishing). Following the runaway success of 2017’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, Award founders Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam return with the best – as well as some never-before-seen – photographs of wildlife ever printed.
Finished copies of the US version of Ragnar Jonasson’s The Darkness have landed in the DHH office. This will hit US bookshelves on 16 October.
Sky Song by Abi Elphinstone is now available in a beautiful, limited hardback edition from Goldsboro Books. It is also signed by the author. Get yours now!
In ebook deals, Kindle is running a ‘Great Savings’ promo for Adrian Magson’s Smart Moves and Jean Levy’s What Was Lost. This ends 1 November. For Kobo’s ‘Cheap Thrills’ promo, you can get Adrian Magson’s Rocco and the Nightingale, Jean Levy’s What Was Lost, Claire Dyer’s The Last Day, Shelan Rodger’s Twin Truths and J.D.Fennell’s Sleeper: The Red Storm, for a fraction of the price! This ends on 17 October.
Great reviews keep on coming in for Ronnie Turner’s debut Lies Between Us: “Lies Between Us is a real page turner” (Portobello Book Club); “Lies Between Us is a chilling, tense and calculated story of extreme obsession that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.” (Sarah’s Vignettes); “Twisted, dark, and deeply disturbing, Lies Between Us by Ronnie Turner is an epic debut and I cannot wait for more from this author who is set for stardom in this genre.” (Books Of All Kinds).
Also in new quotes, author Veronica Henry has provided a wonderful endorsement for Joanna Toye’s upcoming debut A Store At War: “Joanna writes with a sure hand and a light touch and knows how to keep her readers agog with her vivid portrayal of A Store At War. It’s a real page-turner with a spirited heroine who will worm her way into readers’ hearts. A sparkling new voice in fiction, Joanna Toye is destined for bookshelves everywhere. A joy from Toye!” This heart-warming, full-of-gumption, debut will be published on the 27 December by HarperCollins.
Luke Turner’s devastating and highly original memoir, Out of the Woods has also been given superb quotes by Olivia Laing (author of Crudo): “A brave and beautiful book, electrifying on sex and nature, religion and love. No one is writing quite like this.”, and Amy Liptrot (author of The Outrun): “Refreshing, frank, edifying, courageous… had me hooked.”
Finally, we’d like to remind you about our upcoming Pitch DHH: York event on Saturday 1 December. David Headley was interviewed on BBC Radio York this week, and since then, we have received a flurry of submissions in response. Keep ‘em coming, budding authors! For full submission guidelines, please click here.