Nosy Crow has bought two books from a Bath Spa University MA graduate in a pre-empt providing “cross company excitement and a clear publishing vision” within 48 hours of submission.
Kirsty Applebaum’s first novel, The Middler, won the 2016 United Agents Prize for Most Promising Writing for Young People, and will be published next year “accompanied by an ambitious marketing and PR campaign”.
The children’s indie publisher’s head of fiction, Kirsty Stansfield, bought world rights from Nancy Miles at the Miles Stott Agency.
The Middler is a “gripping story” aimed at nine to 12-year-olds featuring forbidden friendship, loyalty and betrayal set in a near-future world.
Stansfield described the quality of writing by Winchester-based Applebaum as “superb”. She said: “I was immediately drawn into Maggie’s world and wanted to know all about her, and the quiet menace underpinning everything.”
Kate Wilson, m.d at Nosy Crow said: “It had me at the first page – such a great voice. It’s unusual to find such perfectly-pitched middle-grade fiction, and I think it has real international potential.”
via Nosy Crow snaps up Bath Spa graduate’s debut | The Bookseller.
Bloomsbury bought world rights to a YA novel by début author Karen Gregory on the first day of the fair yesterday (Monday 4th April). Gregory’s Countless is about a girl called Hedda who decides to call a truce with her eating disorder, which she calls “Nia”, when she finds out that she is pregnant. Publishing director Rebecca McNally acquired world rights in a two-book deal from Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Publication of the title is scheduled for May 2017.
