Book News and Deals: The Round-Up

Here are a few snippets of book deals and news that have caught my eye lately! I'm really chuffed for Alice Peterson doing so well with her book Monday to Friday Man, and for all the new book deals that have been agreed!

Choc Lit Set To Publish Doctor Who-inspired Debut

Award-winning, independent publisher Choc Lit have bought world rights for a quirky romantic comedy. A Stitch in Time is written by Amanda James and is set for release in April 2013. The debut novel has a time travel theme and was inspired by television programmes such as- Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, Ashes to Ashes and The Time Traveller's Wife as well as Amanda James's own teaching experience.

'We are delighted to add Amanda to our pool of talented authors. A Stitch in Time is a fun novel with insightful flashbacks in our history - the Sheffield Blitz, the Suffragette movement in London to the Old American West. Readers are in for a real treat as well as a quirky history lesson. ' Stated Lyn Vernham, Director Choc Lit.

Previously, Amanda has written short stories that have appeared in the anthologies Hipp-O-Dee-Doo-Dah for Children's Hospices UK and 100 Stories for Queensland (an anthology published to raise funds for The Queensland Flood Appeal).

(Taken from booktrade.info)

Arrow snaps up six Sweet Valley e-book novellas

Arrow has acquired six novellas that follow on from Francine Pascal's adult novel, Sweet Valley Confidential, and will be publishing them as e-book originals.

Editor Gillian Holmes bought UK Commonwealth, excluding ANZ, rights from Angharad Kowal at Writers House, with Cornerstone Digital to publish all six novellas as e-books on 12th August 2012.

Holmes said the novellas open three years after Sweet Valley Confidential ended, and said: "In The Sweet Life, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are now 30, and there are some pretty huge surprises in store both for them and the millions of Sweet Valley fans. Each 'episode' ends on a cliffhanger so it's impossible to stop reading them. Direct to digital e-books are the perfect format for Sweet Valley fans, and it's a new and exciting venture for us."


Michael Joseph acquires two from Moyes

Michael Joseph has acquired two new novels, as yet untitled, by Me Before You author Jojo Moyes.
Managing director Louise Moore signed a two-book deal with Sheila Crowley of Curtis Brown for British Commonwealth rights excluding Canada, with the first to be published in 2013.

Moore said: "Me Before You is proof that commercial women's fiction is alive and flourishing. Jojo gave us the right book and the result speaks for itself. We have loved working with Jojo at Penguin, and to publish into this genre in an entirely new and exciting way."

Twenty pence e-book cracks Kindle top three

An e-book being offered on the Kindle store for 20p has broken the top-three monopoly of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy after weeks of dominance.

Alice Peterson's Monday to Friday Man (Quercus) has risen to number three in the paid-for Kindle chart, as E L James' Fifty Shades of Grey (Arrow) drops to the number four slot, after spending 142 days in the top hundred.

The top two spots are still taken by the Fifty Shades follow-ups, Fifty Shades Freed and Fifty Shades Darker.

Monday to Friday Man was first released in July 2011, and has spent 75 days in the top hundred Kindle bestsellers.

Its success has grown while it has been offered for 20p, as Amazon matches the price of books offered in a promotion on the Sony Reader Store.

(Above three articles taken from The Bookseller)