Kicking off the weekly highlights with some huge congratulations.
Our very own Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was named Popular Fiction Book of the Year at the National Book Awards this week. She also took home the Books Are My Bag Readers Choice Award a couple of weeks ago, and won the “Premio Amo Questo Libro” (I Love This Book Prize) in Italy in its inaugural year. Waterstones has brought out a very special edition of Eleanor Oliphant just in time for Christmas and we can’t get enough of it. The novel has now sold over 1.5 million copies across all formats in the UK.
It’s also been a huge week for C.J. Tudor and The Chalk Man. She was shortlisted for the highly competitive Crime & Thriller category at the National Book Awards, alongside acclaimed crime writers such as Ian Rankin and Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). 981 paperback copies of The Chalk Man were sold this week, bringing the total up to 55,155. 167 eBooks sold this week, bringing that total to 19,073.
Poonam Mistry’s illustrations in You’re Snug With Me continue to go from strength to strength. This week the book, written by Chitra Soundar, was named by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best picture books of 2018.
Anya Glazer inked the agency’s second illustration deal. Thesaurus, written and illustrated by Anya, follows the adventures of a book loving dinosaur, went to HarperCollins and is due to be published in Summer 2020.
Love you Gone by Rona Halsall was No 1 in the KOBO eBook charts, and is No. 2 on the iTunes chart as we write this. The Orchid Girls by Lesley Sanderson, another agency book, was No. 2 at the weekend in the KOBO charts, and is currently No. 3. The Orchid Girls was published on 13th November by Bookouture.
Little Darlings by Melanie Golding has been sold into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with rights going to Ikar.
C. J. Tudor’s second thriller, The Taking of Annie Thorne, is heading to Latvia having found a home at Zvaigzne. The book is published in the UK in February.
We are thrilled to announce that Robin Morgan-Bentley has signed with the Agency. A key player at Audible, Robin promises to have a hugely exciting career as a writer too. More soon!
Bestselling crime author Mel Sherratt has become an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust. Having sold a million copies of her books, we could think of no one better to support the scheme, in partnership with HarperCollins, which will see her ‘inspire students… to further their career aspirations and highlight the importance of literacy skills for success’.
And finally: a cover design. Strictly speaking from last week, but we love it so much we’re going to put it on here. Have a look at this awesome cover for Claire S. Lewis, whose book She’s Mine is published by Aria (Head of Zeus) in Spring 2019.
