HAPPY CHRISTMAS from the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency

by Danni Bradford

Celebrating SOULMATES publication with the Madeleine Milburn Agency

Congratulations to Holly Bourne on the publication of her début novel, SOULMATES, published by Usborne on Sunday 1st September.

Holly has had a full schedule with the launch of SOULMATES, speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival alongside Sarah Mussi, and sharing an author yurt with the likes of Caitlin Moran and Margaret Atwood, and is now on the SOULMATES roadshow tour. She’ll be signing at bookshops and taking part in popular events such as the panel discussion at Blackwells this Wednesday 4th September with C.J. Daugherty, who also writes YA fiction that appeals to adults.

Holly was busy signing books at Waterstones in her hometown over the weekend which was followed by a wonderful launch party where we celebrated the publication of her novel and ate SOULMATES CAKE!

Holly Bourne is also a fulltime journalist for TheSite.org, a charity-run website that helps 16-25-year-olds with practically every problem you can imagine growing up.  Before this, she spent two years working as a news reporter for The Surrey Mirror where she was shortlisted for Print Journalist of the Year 2010.  She has a first class degree in Journalism from the University of Sheffield.

We are very excited about the publication of SOULMATES, quite literally a love story to end the world…

 

New York 2013

Flatiron building – home to publishers including Macmillan and Bloomsbury

I spent last week in New York on business seeing over 50 editors from 11 major US publishing companies.  Each day tended to be ordered around two major publishers, with thirty minute back-to-back appointments at each.  Day 1 consisted of Little, Brown and HarperCollins; day 2: Simon & Schuster and Random House; day 3: Penguin and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; day 4: Bloomsbury, Macmillan’s imprints (all in my favourite building in NY, the Flatiron) and Egmont; day 5: Hyperion and Scholastic.

It felt wonderful cementing relationships and meeting new editors to work with as there has been so much movement over the last two years.  I am now busy following up my meetings and submitting new material by my clients to all the interested editors.

Further to the success of S.J. Watson’s BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, psychological suspense is still working really well. Everyone I spoke to had read, or was reading, the cracking psychological suspense novel GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn. Even the children’s editors were discussing this book, reminding me of my last business trip in NY when the crime author Tana French was most talked about.  St Martin’s Press will be publishing Sophie McKenzie’s gripping first adult psychological suspense, CLOSE MY EYES, this summer, and I was very lucky to get a proof copy. Most of the editors were looking for new psychological suspense – even on the Young Adult side they were looking for this genre, particularly stories told by an unreliable narrator.

The other trend that was most talked about was New Adult, defined by an editor as realistic stories involving college age characters (with lots of sex), appealing to adult readers. It looks like popular sitcoms like GIRLS are now translating into books.

It was a super trip, and I’m already looking forward to my return.

The Belinda Jones Travel Book Club short story competition

Bestselling author Belinda Jones is giving three brand-new unsigned writers a fabulous opportunity to be published this summer alongside an array of bestselling authors.  The popular women’s fiction anthology called SUNLOUNGER will be published in July 2013, and will include each winning story.  Readers will be transported to San Tropez, Tuscany, Key West, Antigua, the Australian Outback and beyond!

Not only will your story be published alongside 30+ fabulous names in fiction, but the first prize-winner will receive a cabin case filled with deluxe travel goodies, as well as a special one-to-one consultation with the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency.

Milburn will give consultations to all three winners and will also be selling the translation rights in the SUNLOUNGER anthology to publishers around the world.  Five of the Agency’s women’s fiction authors are already contributing: Victoria Fox, Carrie Duffy, Cally Taylor, Anna-Lou Weatherley and Emma Garcia.  They will be taking part in a hotly anticipated photo shoot on 27th February at a special location in London to promote the competition and their work. 

Milburn says “I am delighted with The Belinda Jones Travel Club competition – I believe there will be a huge revival in popular women’s fiction over the upcoming summer, especially seeing how successful this genre is on the ereader.   This will give women’s fiction a very welcome publicity boost.  The Sunlounger author shoot is on tomorrow so stay tuned for some incredible footage celebrating women’s fiction!”

The Belinda Jones Travel Club facebook page is running the Jet Set Chick Lit Short Story competition, and we are very much hoping that you would like to contribute a mini masterpiece to the anthology.

Word count: 1-5,000
Deadline: March 31st 2013
Publication date: July 1st 2013
Location: anywhere sunny/summery outside the UK!
Theme: the kind of story you would like to read while swaying in a hammock
Additional info: a sense of place – the book will provide the reader with a round the world trip!

To register and receive a set of guidelines, entrants simply send an email to sunloungerstories@gmail.com. There will be ongoing discussion and advice at the Belinda Jones Travel Club page on Facebook while @belindatravels and @agentmilburn offers up-to-date Tweets!  Belinda Jones is the author of 10 escapist novels branded ‘Vacations for the price of a Paperback’ so it is fitting that the first prize-winner has the added bonus of receiving a designer cabin-case filled to the brim with deluxe travel goodies.

  

Dave Lowe shortlisted for the Sheffield Children’s Book Award

Children’s author, Dave Lowe, has been shortlisted for the Sheffield Children’s Book Award with his début fiction for kids, MY HAMSTER IS A GENIUS.  This is the first in a series of hilarious hamster books published by Templar in the UK.

Details of the complete shortlist can be found here

‘The Sheffield Children’s Book Award began in 1988. The project was first started to encourage children and young people to read and also to highlight the very best children’s books published each year. Their award is voted for entirely by young readers themselves.

Over the award’s lifetime, many established authors – such as Jacqueline Wilson, Robert Swindells and Michael Morpurgo – have experienced success with the young readers taking part in the award. However, over the years, our young readers have also been amongst the first to recognise the talents of new and exciting authors; for example, back in 1998, a certain J K Rowling was awarded Overall Winner for her very first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone!’

We are all delighted for Dave at the Agency.  The second book in the series will be published on March 1st 2013:  MY HAMSTER IS AN ASTRONAUT.  We have just tied up a new deal with Templar for 3 more books in the series.

 

                

Congatulations to the ‘Racy Reads’ winner, picked by Victoria Fox!

Victoria Fox has made another fabulous appearance on ITV’s Lorraine show, announcing the winner of the Mills & Boon ‘Racy Reads’ competition with Bill Roache and Jackie Collins herself.

Watch the coverage here:  Racy Reads – the winner announced

Anouska Knight won the competition with CAKE.  Her work will now be published by Mills & Boon AND she’ll be flown out to LA for a lunch with Jackie Collins.

The two talented runners up were Helen Corcoran with YOUNG AT HEART and Georgina Woolmore’s LOVE LIFE.

Victoria Fox said of the competition: “It’s been amazing for me to be involved in this, from start to finish: being able to talk with the mighty Jackie Collins, meeting legend Bill Roache, and working with the ITV team to uncover a brilliant new writer. What a fantastic experience!”

Victoria Fox’s brand new bonkbuster, WICKED AMBITION, is coming out this summer following her huge success with HOLLYWOOD SINNERS and TEMPTATION ISLAND.

 

Exciting cover reveal…

Penguin reveals their latest cover for Evie Hunter’s next book, THE PLEASURES OF SUMMER, which will be released on May 30th, 2013 in paperback and ebook:

Evie Hunter’s erotica début, THE PLEASURES OF WINTER, was published by Penguin in November 2012 and went straight to No.3 on the Irish bestseller list and No.1 on iTunes.  For an erotic short story by Evie Hunter, download A TOUCH OF WINTER, exclusive to Amazon Kindle.

Mel Sherratt JOINS the Madeleine Milburn Agency

I am absolutely thrilled to welcome crime and thriller writer extraordinaire, Mel Sherratt, to the Madeleine Milburn Agency.  Since publishing with Amazon, Mel has sold over 100,000 copies of her novels.  Her bestselling crime début, TAUNTING THE DEAD, a gripping police procedural, shot to the top 10 on the Amazon Kindle chart.  It has been No.1 in police procedurals, No.1 in mysteries and No.1 in thrillers, staying in the top 10 for four weeks and the top one hundred for three months.

Her gritty psychological thriller series, THE ESTATE, is also having huge success on ebook. Both SOMEWHERE TO HIDE and BEHIND A CLOSED DOOR are in the top 3 thrillers and suspense category. The third book in the series, FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL, will be released this Christmas.

Mel Sherratt was recognised for her writing when she was just 11 years old.  She was honoured by Staffordshire County Council after winning a writing competition where she was selected as one of twenty finalists out of 60,000 entries.  Her primary school ran an annual award in her name for best written essay.

In 1997 she became a housing officer for the local authority from which she draws many of her experiences. She has been writing novels for twelve years, including popular women’s fiction under a pen name. She published her first crime novel in December 2011 and is currently writing a dark psychological suspense thriller that Madeleine Milburn will reveal at the London Book Fair 2013.

Milburn says “As soon as I met Mel, I could see exactly why she has become a bestselling author.  She has achieved so much on her own but I am now determined to break her out internationally.”

Mel has even been quoted by Ian Rankin in We Love This Book, Desert Island Books – ‘There’s a lot of young crime writers that I’ve just met for the first time. There’s one called Mel Sherratt – and she’s only on ebook at the moment; she’s very interesting.’