A year at the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency

* 10 exciting highlights from a successful year at the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency *

Fiona Barton’s hotly anticipated book THE WIDOW (Transworld) was published in January and quickly became the No.2 UK bestseller, while also climbing swiftly to No.9 on the New York Times bestseller list. To date, THE WIDOW has been translated into 35 languages and has become a global bestseller with Film & TV rights optioned by Playground Television. THE WIDOW was chosen for the Richard & Judy Bookclub and is the UK’s No.3 bestselling hardback debut of 2016. In December 2016, THE WIDOW won the Richard & Judy Autumn Bookclub, rounding off an incredible year.

April saw the publication of the latest Sunday Times bestselling thriller THE MISSING by C.L. Taylor (HarperCollins), with record sales making it No.5 in paperback and No.1 in ebook. It was subsequently shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Award, and has been chosen for World Book Night 2017. Cumulative sales of C.L. Taylor’s last three books are approaching a million copies, and THE LIE has been optioned by The Forge for Film & TV.

Holly Bourne’s AM I NORMAL YET? (Usborne) was shortlisted for the YA book prize, winner of the Lancashire Book Award and selected for World Book Night 2016. Lara Williamson, also published by Usborne, was shortlisted for a Blue Peter Book Award with her novel THE BOY WHO SAILED THE OCEAN IN AN ARMCHAIR. Both Holly Bourne and Lara Williamson have been nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017, one of the most prestigious prizes in writing and illustrating for children.

In April, Madeleine Milburn was proud to have two of the agency’s bestselling authors joining panels at the London Book Fair 2016: Mel Sherratt talking with Amazon about Independent Publishing, and Kathryn Croft debating whether Self-Publishing Houses are the next level in the evolution of Self-Publishing as a whole.

In June, the children’s book ANYONE BUT IVY POCKET by Caleb Krisp (HarperCollins) hit the New York Times Ebook bestseller list at No.4. Film rights have been optioned by Hollywood Studio Paramount with Allison Shearmur of THE HUNGER GAMES producing.

With up to a thousand entries to consider, in September the Madeleine Milburn Agency announced the results of the exciting crime and thriller competition, Make Us Scared, with Richard Larkin coming first for his debut novel GARAGE FLOWERS.

In October, the Frankfurt Book Fair sensation THE CHALK MAN by C.J. Tudor (Penguin Random House) became the Madeleine Milburn Agency’s fastest selling debut of all time, with rights sold to 38 publishers around the world. Likened to Stephen King and the Netflix drama STRANGER THINGS, C.J’s debut novel will be published in January 2018.

THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR by Mel Sherratt (Bookouture) has dominated Amazon’s top 10 ebook bestsellers since publication in October. Other recent ebook bestsellers include works by agency authors Kathryn Croft, Leah Mercer, Holly Martin, A.J. Waines and Caroline Mitchell.

The Madeleine Milburn Agency hosted the annual Author Christmas Party celebrating the success of all the agency’s authors with some of their editors. As ever, it was lovely to see so much talent in one room, and for everyone to see old friends and meet new ones too. Here is a selection of photos from the night: