Farshore are celebrating the phenomenal success of Holly Jackson’s debut, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by snapping up two more books, including one killer sequel, from the market’s newest thriller star.
Lindsey Heaven, Editorial Director for Fiction at Farshore signed the second two-book deal with Sam Copeland at Rogers, Coleridge & White for World rights.
Published in May 2019, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is the highest charting and bestselling YA debut of 2019, selling 30k copies to date. Jackson is also set to break the US market later this year when the novel will publish as a super lead title for Penguin Random House.
Jackson’s strong sales demonstrate that UK YA debuts can achieve chart success, despite recent pessimism about the YA book market. Selected as the only YA title in the WHS Thumping Good Reads 2019 promotion, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder combines a thrilling pace with a darkly humorous narrative to create a chilling yet addictive plot.
With Jackson’s debut likened to the podcast Serial and Netflix phenomenon Making a Murderer, it came as no surprise when television and film rights were snapped up at auction and ahead of publication by Moonage Pictures, the team behind hits such as Peaky Blinders.
The highly anticipated sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – title and cover to be revealed soon – will publish in May 2020, backed by a major marketing and PR campaign. Holly’s third and fourth books will follow in 2021 and 2022.
Ali Dougal, Fiction Publishing Director, said: ‘We’re thrilled with the way our YA strategy has played out with A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Electric Monkey is a boutique list of bestsellers and award-winners; we acquire only the most commercial and distinctive books, each of which we support with targeted and creative marketing and PR.
Holly Jackson is a huge talent and we’re proud to have launched her career as the new must-read thriller writer. She has a big future ahead of her.’
Holly Jackson, author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, said: ‘I am incredibly grateful to everyone at Farshore who has worked so hard to make this happen. Even more excitingly, I now get to work on more books with my publishing dream-team, including a sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I can’t wait to bring Pip back to solve another mystery and I want to thank everyone who has supported the book and made this possible.’
About the Author
Holly Jackson grew up in Buckinghamshire and started writing stories from a young age, completing her first attempt at a novel aged fifteen.
She is a massive true-crime fan and her hobbies include binge-playing video games and pointing out grammatical errors in street signs. Holly lives in London.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson published 19 May 2019.
The sequel will publish May 2020.
