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A 28-year-old first-time author from Canterbury has landed what is believed to be the world’s largest ever book advance for a debut children’s writer, with a fantasy series about “bloodthirsty unicorns”.
Annabel Steadman, writing as AF Steadman, was paid a “major” seven-figure sum by Simon & Schuster this week, following a hotly contested multi-publisher auction for three books in her fantasy adventure series for children, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief. Set in a world where unicorns are deadly, and can only be tamed by the rider who hatches them, the series follows Skandar Smith, who is preparing to become a unicorn rider. When the most powerful unicorn in the world is stolen by a mysterious figure, becoming a rider becomes a lot more complicated than Skandar ancitipated.
“Unicorns don’t belong in fairytales; they belong in nightmares,” writes Steadman as the series opens. The unicorns in her books are “not at all like the unicorns we know in shops, these fluffy unicorns with rainbows, they’re different and exciting and magical but also dangerous,” she says.
Simon & Schuster, which will publish the first book in the series in spring 2022, said the deal was believed to be record-breaking for a debut children’s author. Sony Pictures has also signed an “aggressive” seven-figure deal for the feature film rights in the series, which is aimed at readers of nine and over.
Stormzy has said he hopes authors who do not have “an outlet or a means to get their work seen” will take inspiration from his publishing imprint as he launched the second year of the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize.
The prize aims to discover unpublished, under-represented writers aged 16-30 from the UK and Ireland and the winner or winners will receive a publishing contract with #Merky Books, an imprint within Penguin Random House UK.
The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges including Stormzy, authors Candice Brathwaite and Emma Dabiri, Man Like Mobeen star and creator Guz Khan and Olympian Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Yesterday, book publishers across the United Kingdom raced to release almost 600 books in a single day. Known within the industry as “Super Thursday,” the massive push was planned in response to a growing backlog of titles that were supposed to be released throughout the spring and summer but, like many events this year, were delayed by Covid-19.
Thanks to the pandemic, the majority of book festivals and literary events planned for this spring and summer ended up canceled. Bookstores around the world have also shuttered due to lack of business: This April, reports Alexandra Alter for the New York Times, bookstore sales in the United States dropped more than 65 percent versus April 2019.
Laurence King Publishing (LKP) has been acquired by fellow U.K.-based publisher Hachette UK in a deal signed August 31. No price was disclosed.
Founded in London in 1991, LKP, which is currently distributed in the U.S. by Chronicle Books, has focused on publishing books and gifts tied to the creative arts. It is likely best known as one on the creators of the adult coloring format and was the original publisher of adult coloring book queen Johanna Basford. Her Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest adult coloring books sold more than 16 million copies globally and were a huge hit in the U.S. In recent years, LKP has become well-known for its gift products.
Articles
Traditional book publishers. They were once known as the titans of the book publishing industry. In the Baby Boomer era, self-publishing was an unknown concept. You needed a traditional publisher if you wanted the best chance to succeed with your book.
During that time, there was significantly less competition for publishers and authors, meaning more book sales for both parties.
Over time, traditional publishers (especially The Big 5) gradually started to exploit authors by offering lower royalties and seizing the author’s publishing rights.
In April 2011, Marion Grace Woolley found her first publisher through firstwriter.com's database of publishers. A year later, she has published three books with two different publishers, both from our listings.
I've fallen in love with printed books. Again. Especially those for children.
Twenty years into my book publishing career—which included marketing for trade book publishers and founding a children's imprint—I had the opportunity to go digital, move into the future, hang out with the cool guys, play games, do the bicoastal thing, and grow a ponytail.
Several years ago, as an aspiring novelist with stardust in my eyes, I used to spend most of my waking hours in Yahoo’s Books and Literature chatroom in the company of fellow aspiring writers. I clearly remember how one of the main topics of conversations used to be the number of rejection slips one had received on that particular day (or the previous week), agents/publishers who had requested a synopsis or proposal, and those who had just not bothered to respond. All of us were united by the looming sense of uncertainty, suspense, and the palpable realisation that the odds were firmly stacked against us.
Today, having spent more than seven years on the other side, first as a consultant and then an agent, I think many writers have wrong notions about rejections. While most books are rejected because of poor quality and incompetence (as they should be), there are several other factors that play a role in publishing decisions. And these affect “good” books too.
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