News
Début prompts European frenzy D
WORDS Katherine Cowdrey
ÉBUT CRIME NOVEL In the Mire by Swedish journalist Susanne Jansson has taken off at the fair, with rights sold in seven territories. As The Bookseller Daily went to press, an eight-way auction was closing in Germany, with multi-part auctions currently under way for the UK, Italian, Polish, Czech Republic and Esto- nian rights.
The “atmospheric suspense” novel was submited worldwide by Ahlander Agency just a week ago, with a string of two-book deals signed, in Denmark (Rosi- nante), France (Presses de la Cité), Lithuania (Baltos Lankos), the Netherlands (Cargo), Norway (Aschehoug) and Slovenia (Plus). Wahlström & Widstrand will publish the title in Sweden at the end of March.
Ahlander agent Astri von Arbin
said the buzz about the book was “electric”, with “aggressive” pre- empts and cash sums at auctions at “high levels”. The book is “truly an original suspense novel, with an incredible sense of milieu and atmosphere,” she added. Alluding to Iron Age sacrifices to the gods in peat bogs across Northern Europe, the novel follows two women, a young scientist and a police photographer, who are forced to confront “buried horrors of the past” in a mire in rural Sweden. Von Arbin said the German auction would end in “definitely a large deal”, while in the UK there are “several” pre-empts. “Things have been happening very quickly, with a Dutch pre-empt before we even had a chance to make an offi- cial submission, and a German offer within the first hour,” von Arbin said. “A stand-out in the crowded crime field, this book is hiting home in so many markets.”
Tamblyn: MFN cessation to liberate ‘e’ market
The European Commission ruling that led to Amazon pledging to abolish its Most Favoured Nation clauses in contracts with publishers will give it freedom to run more “innovative” promotions with rival companies, Kobo’s c.e.o. Michael Tamblyn left has told The Bookseller. Publishers that have been averse to running digital deals, fearing the “competitive response” or being “punished for doing something with one retailer that they don’t do with another” will have more freedom as a result of being “out of contract”, he said. Tamblyn added: “[Kobo is] able to dif-
Bonnier eyeing start-ups
Bonnier Book Ventures (BBV) is looking to invest in start-ups, c.e.o. Rebecka Leffler pictured has told The Bookseller. Launched in Janu- ary, BBV was set up to be reactive and flexible in line with consum- ers’ changing demands and habits. “The way we tell stories is rapidly
evolving, which demands that platforms act faster and are more innovative,” she said. “BBV is fully focused on digital innovation, for which the acquisition of start-ups is as important as organic growth through product development. Our vision is to create an environ- ment that stimulates and devel-
ferentiate itself by doing more interesting things around promotions with publish- ers. The more latitude [publishers] have there, the more latitude they have to think creatively about how to create pro- motions that customers find exciting.” He also called self-publishing “the
‘dark matter’ of the publishing universe”, referring to the indie-authored market that now accounts for 20% of Kobo’s sales. “It’s a growing part of the business but is undetectable by most measuring instru- ments… It’s like having another Penguin Random House that no one can see.”
ops new ways to create, curate and distribute stories.” BBV’s self-publishing platform Type & Tell was unveiled at this year’s fair, but Leffler said it would be “picky” about its investments. “It is important for us to be out there, talking to potential partners to see where we can find synergies between what we know and what they have developed,” she said. BBV will launch a series of online courses on health, exercise and self-improvement (using Bonnier Books authors’ content) in beta in Sweden this month, with a view to evolving it into a “huge catalogue”.
Hot Property Shriver seals six-figure HC deal
HarperCollins has signed a six- figure deal with Lionel Shriver for world English-language rights to Property, a short story collection exploring the theme of owner- ship in the writer’s “wry, sharply intelligent style”. HarperCollins US’ Gail Winston and Suzie Dooré of HC UK’s Borough Press brokered the deal with Kimberly Witherspoon of InkWell Manage- ment. The title will be published in 2018.
Cool story, bro: Head of Zeus bags Dukaj’s Ice
Head of Zeus has acquired world English-language rights to Polish author Jacek Dukaj’s prize-win- ning Ice, to publish in 2018, in a deal struck with Magdalena Debowska of
PolishRights.com. Ice, Dukaj’s “most ambitious” novel, conjures an alternative 20th century in which Russia and half of Europe are locked in an eternal winter, and the laws of physics are awry.
Yellow Kite signs rites to pudenda splendour
Yellow Kite has snapped up world English-language rights to The Wonder Down Under, medi- cal students and “sex educa- tors” Nina Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl’s precis of “every- thing you ever wanted to know about the vagina but didn’t dare ask”. The title was acquired at auction by senior editor Tamsin English from agent Even Råkil. Yellow Kite and Quercus US will publish the title simultaneously in spring 2018.
Hannah Kent Rites third novel for Picador
Picador senior editor Sophie Jon- athan has signed Hannah Kent’s as-yet-untitled third novel from Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown. The deal is for UK and Common- wealth rights and audio, exclud- ing Australasia. Kent’s first novel, Burial Rites, was translated into nearly 30 languages and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Guardian First Book Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
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