After she was dropped by her agent, Alex Aster turned to a books-obsessed corner of TikTok to gauge interest in her YA novel … and now Lightlark is one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the yearHaving finally published her first novel, Alex Aster was feeling disheartened. The book had tanked during the pandemic and she had been dropped by her literary agent. Then, on 13 March 2021, she decided to take to TikTok, asking her followers if they would: “read a book about a cursed island that only appears once every 100 years to host a game that gives the six rulers of the realm a chance to break their curses.” One of the rulers must die, the short video revealed, “even as love complicates everything” for the heroine, Isla Crown.Aster didn’t expect much, especially when she checked in a few hours later to see that her post had only clocked up about 1,000 views. Maybe the books world was right, she thought. Maybe there wasn’t a market for Lightlark, a young adult story she had been writing and rewriting for years, to no interest from publishers. The next day, however, she woke up to see her video had been viewed more than a million times. A week later, Lightlark had gone to auction and she had a six-figure deal with Amulet Books. Last month, Universal preemptively bought the film rights for, in her words, “more zeros than I’ve seen in my life”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-16 13:32:30 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 21/03/2011 - 15:15 Simon & Schuster has signed a new picture book deal with the creative duo behind the Aliens Love Underpants series. Emma Blackburn, picture book editorial director at S&S, bought world rights to Monstersaurus from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What's new in the hardcover fiction bestsellers of 2010? Very little. Almost every author in the fiction top 30 has been on these charts in previous yearsmost several times. The sole exception is the #1 fiction bestseller, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, with sales of 1.9 million. Stieg... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's the Stieg Larsson show in 2010 paperback bestsellers. The first two books of his enormously successful trilogy racked up sales of more than 10,942,000 in their mass market and paperback editions. That's more than the combined sales of two other stellar sellersJames Patterson and Nora... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 06:39 French authors have urged culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand to intecede in order to break the deadlock in their negotiations with publishers over electronic rights. For the second year running, the Permanent Council of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Wed, 16/03/2011 - 13:30 French authors are increasingly satisfied with their publishers, according to the third annual survey conducted by the Civil Society for Multimedia Authors (Scam). The latest results show that 71% of respondents are... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 15/03/2011 - 09:12 Hodder & Stoughton, along with Hachette Books Ireland, has bought rights to two new novels by Irish fiction author Ciara Geraghty for a "significant six figure sum". The deal for British Commonwealth rights including... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 11/03/2011 - 16:25 Writers ability to average out their earnings over a number of years could be abolished, according to new tax system proposals. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 11/03/2011 - 10:11 Agents have claimed two big-money deals worth £500,000 each, which could mark a return to confidence in the rights market in the crucial weeks ahead of next month's London Book Fair. Simon & Schuster publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 08/03/2011 - 08:40 Inspiring books by and about women are being hailed for International Women's Day, as J K Rowling and Germaine Greer are named among 17 authors on the Guardian's Top 100 Inspirational Women list. Female novelists are holding... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 28/02/2011 - 15:43 A Carnegie-nominated author has proposed an alternative to World Book Night, suggesting readers buy one book from a bookshop this week and give it away. Writing on her blog, Nicola Morgan said she believed there were better... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The decision by the owner of Cosmopolitan to buy Lagardère's international portfolio, and the rights for Elle, reflects the shifting sands of the magazine marketplace. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 16/02/2011 - 07:06 Author Margaret Atwood used her Tools of Change keynote speech to warn the industry not to eliminate authors, and make sure they are paid enough to "pay for the cheese sandwiches". read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 16/02/2011 - 14:50 Headline fiction publisher at large Martin Fletcher has made two sets of acquisitions, including a debut novel by Cityboy author Geraint Anderson. Fletcher bought UK, Commonwealth, excluding Canada and including ANZ and Europe... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Mon, 14/02/2011 - 16:10 read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 11/02/2011 - 08:28 An open letter to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and culture minister Ed Vaizey calling for a halt to library closures after the success of last weekend's protests has been signed by high-profile authors including Sarah... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 11/02/2011 - 07:59 The estate of the romance writer Barbara Cartland has fallen to the embrace of digital, in a move that sees her print publisher suffering a painful rejection. About a quarter of Cartland's extensive ouevre is to be published... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Wed, 09/02/2011 - 20:05 Debut author Sita Brahmachari has won the Waterstones Childrens Book Prize for her coming-of-age novel about life, death, friendship and love. She was awarded the £5,000 prize this evening [9th February] for Artichoke Hearts, published by Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hearst Corporation, parent to the National Magazine Company, has confirmed for the first time it is no longer in talks to buy BBC Magazines following its Lagardère move. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Apple's approach to magazine and newspaper subscriptions and third-party ebook sales stink of the kind of practices that got Microsoft into trouble with trustbusters on two continents during the late 1990s and early 2000s. A year ago, publishers embraced iPad as the... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Amazon.co.uk has reiterated its opposition to agency pricing as it revealed its top-selling ebook authors are not governed by the model. Last week Amazon.com announced ebooks had begun to outsell paperbacks in the US for the first time, with 115 ebooks bought for every... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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