BOOK OF THE YEAR PAGETURNER
OVERVIEW A new gong for this Pageturner category is aimed at popular features titles from from fantasy to saga to coming-of-age. What they have in common is innovative page-turning that feeling you get
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE Mike Gayle’s novel centred around Windrush-generation character Hubert Bird, who deals with family heartbreak, overt racism and prejudice, as well as the loneliness of isolation. Hodder & Stoughton leaned into the timely themes when the pandemic hit and stayed firm in its marketing and publicity plan. The novel has been picked up by Grand Central in the US.
JUST MY LUCK Adele Parks’ 20th book in as many years saw the author published in hardback for the first time in six years, and HQ planned a strong campaign to launch the novel, including 14 festival and bookshop appearances. When lockdown hit, the team moved swiftly to online marketing and ran a reactive, canny campaign to engage readers online, dubbed #LockdownLuck.
PUBLISHERS 1 HODDER & STOUGHTON 2 HARPERVOYAGER 3 GOLLANCZ 4 HQ 5 HARPERFICTION 6 CORSAIR
RAG-AND-BONE CHRISTMAS Dilly Court had three books out last year and HarperFiction set out to revamp and redesign her titles to make Court one of the biggest saga authors on the market. When lockdown hit, the publisher focused its efforts on the supermarkets, garnering spots in Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. The title has sold over 79,000 copies through Nielsen’s TCM.
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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING A début author at the age of 71, Delia Owens’ novel is in equal parts coming-of age story, murder mystery and romance. Lockdown presented exciting opportunities for Corsair as the author, who lives on a remote ranch in Idaho, was able to give interviews via video call. The title has been optioned for film by Fox 2000, with Reese Witherspoon to direct.
DARKDAWN Darkdawn is the final book in Jay Kristoff’s Nevernight Chronicles trilogy. To set the fantasy author apart in a crowded market, HarperVoyager worked with artist Kerby Rosanes to create a design that would become synonymous with Kristoff’s brand and bring the author’s world to life: more than 2,000 Waterstones special editions sold out in two hours.
FALSE VALUE With Ben Aaronovitch’s latest title, Gollancz wanted to break the author into a more mainstream space. The design was revamped to attract new readers but positioned to retain the loyal fanbase too: it included hidden easter eggs and even glowed in the dark. The team ran a successful social media-centric campaign, including a popular Q&A with the author.
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