What a successful year!
News Roundup from 2014 at the MM Agency
January
Cally Taylor’s romantic comedy Home For Christmas (Orion) is optioned by Brighton-based company Jump Start Productions.
Emma Garcia’s debut novel Never Google Heartbreak (Hodder) is optioned by producer Adam Rolston of A Street Cat Named Bob (Hodder).
February
Night School: Fracture, the third book in the Night School series by C.J. Daugherty, is the No. 1 bestseller in Poland
Mel Sherratt hits *No.1* in the UK and US on the Amazon charts.
Jemma Forte’s novel If You’re Not the One is optioned by Working Title Films.
Holly Martin’s love story, The Guestbook (Carina), hits * No.5 * on the Kindle bestseller list.
March
Bloomsbury Publishing acquires ‘bestseller-in-the-making’
Harry Potter publisher, Bloomsbury, acquires Anyone but Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp fighting off stiff competition from an inordinate number of other publishers. They will publish the first book in Spring 2015. There have now been a MASSIVE 18 translation deals for the series.
April
Lara Williamson’s A Boy Called Hope (Usborne Publishing) shortlisted for the IBW Book Award, alongside Patrick Ness and Malorie Blackman
The Dark Inside (Simon & Schuster) by Rupert Wallis shortlisted for The Andersen Prize, the most prestigious literary award for children in Italy.
May
The 
Accident hits No. 31 in the Official UK Bestsellers chart and No. 6 overall on the Amazon Bestseller rank (UK Kindle Store) with 105 five star reviews. No. 1 in ‘Mystery’ and ‘Murder’ (Kindle), and No. 1 in ‘Mystery’ (Books)
C.J. Daugherty is officially the No.2 bestselling author in Germany!
C.J. Daugherty’s fourth book, Night school: Resistance, comes in at position * No.2 * on the German Spiegel bestseller list, positioned just above Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch.
Madeleine Milburn announces the 2014 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize Winner at the special Award Ceremony dinner held by the President of the College, Professor Janet Todd.
June
The Accident by C.L. Taylor sells over **100,000** copies since publication in April.
Mel Sherratt’s total sales reach ** 250,000 ** copies
C.J. Daugherty’s international bestselling YA series continues to dominate the bestseller lists abroad. Night School: Resistance remains in the top 20 on the German Spiegel Bestseller List for 4 weeks. Night School: Fracture hits No. 1 in the Children’s list in Israel.
Night School: Resistance is published in the UK by Little, Brown / Atom
UK publication of Anouska Knight’s A Part of Me
Stinky and Jinks children’s series by Dave Lowe sells 10,000 copies in the Netherlands
July
The new Victoria Fox, Power Games, is published and hits *No. 5* on the Kindle Bestseller Chart
France Loisirs will publish the French book club edition of The Tea Planter’s Daughter (Les lumières d’Assam) by Janet MacLeod Trotter, with an order of 80,000 copies, the club’s ‘Super Première’ novel
Third week in the Top 10 of the Irish Charts for One Wish by Maria Duffy
Wicked Ambition by Victoria Fox is No. 1 in Australian Kindle Charts!
August
Rupert Wallis is shortlisted for the Edinburgh first book award.
C.J. Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld announce their co-written brand new YA series, The Secret Fire, to be published by Little, Brown / Atom in September 2015, with another title to follow in 2016.
Power Games by Victoria Fox is one of The Sun’s ‘Great Summer Reads’
Mel Sherratt is one of the first Amazon authors to be stocked in WHSmith and Waterstones
Publication of Nuala Casey’s Summer Lies Bleeding (Quercus) 
The Manifesto on How to be Interesting by Holly Bourne is No. 1 in the Waterstones School Chart
Power Games by Victoria Fox is Heatworld Summer Reads Special: ‘This is a riot of a book and pure, marvellous escapism from start to end’
September
Holly Martin shortlisted for three of the Festival of Awards categories 2014
Soulmates by Holly Bourne makes the shortlist in two categories of the BookBlogger UKYA awards for ‘Best Contemporary’ and ‘Most Heart-breaking’
The hotly anticipated proofs arrive of Fionnuala Kearney’s debut novel You, Me and Other People (HarperCollins, 2015)
Mel Sherratt longlisted for the prestigious CWA 2014 Dagger in the Library Award
The paperback edition of Luana Lewis’ Don’t Stand So Close is published by Transworld.
Telegraph journalist, Radhika Sanghani’s, debut novel VIRGIN published in the UK (Harlequin) and US (Penguin Random House / Berkley Books)
October
Author of Don’t Stand So Close, Luana Lewis, tours Amsterdam and is interviewed by journalists to promote Don’t Stand So Close (Dicht Bij Mij), published by Transworld in the UK.
Holly Bourne appears at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and The Southbank Festival where she takes part in the Gender and Pop Culture event, chatting alongside Holly Smale, Non Pratt and the film actor Danny Lee Wynter. Holly also appears at the first ever YA Lit Con.
Soulmates makes the shortlist in two categories of the BookBlogger UKYA awards for ‘Best Contemporary’ and ‘Most Heart-breaking’!
The Stranger Within by Kathryn Croft is published.
November
Mel Sherratt now shortlisted for CWA The Dagger in the Library Award!
Bloomsbury’s Anyone But Ivy Pocket proofs arrive hot off the press!
In addition to the Lancashire Fantastic Book Awards nomination, A Boy Called Hope by Lara Williamson is nominated for both the Oxfordshire Book Awards 2015 and the Hounslow Junior Book Awards 2015.
Leeds Book Awards
A Boy Called Hope by Lara Williamson shortlisted for the 9-11 category, The Dark Inside by Rupert Wallis for the 11-14 category and The Manifesto on How to be Interesting by Holly Bourne for the 14-16 category of the Leeds Book Awards.
My Hamster’s Got Talent by Dave Lowe shortlisted for Worcestershire’s Awesomest Book Award.
Articles by Madeleine Milburn on ‘Getting hooked out of the slush pile’ are published in the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and the Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2015
International bestselling YA authors C.J. Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld sign books at the Montreuil Book Fair 2014 
December
The UK film premiere of Cally Taylor’s Home For Christmas! 
Lara Williamson of A Boy Called Hope shortlisted for 8 Book Awards
This year the MM Author Christmas Party was held at 54 The Gallery across the road from the office in Mayfair. A wonderful night had by all!
The first time a British YA book series has been produced for an online audience
Based on the international bestselling Young Adult books by C.J. Daugherty, Night School the Web Series is launched!
Dave Lowe’s children’s title, My Hamster’s Got Talent from the Stinky and Jinks Series is on the official recommendation list for the Dutch Children’s Jury 2015.
Mel Sherratt’s gripping psychological thriller, Watching Over You is Kindle’s Best Crime Books of 2014: Editors’ Picks list alongside Lee Child, David Jackson, Jo Nesbo and C.J. Sansom
Rupert Wallis, Holly Bourne and Radhika Sanghani all make the Best iBooks of 2014 list.
The Manifesto on How To Be Interesting by Holly Bourne makes The Guardian’s Best Books of 2014.
C.L. Taylor is named as one of The Bookseller’s Top 10 bestselling adult fiction debut authors in 2014 for her psychological suspense debut, The Accident.
The Madeleine Milburn Agency has negotiated top book deals in over 30 countries worldwide this year. We love ALL our international editions.
We would like to congratulate ALL of our amazing authors for their hard work and incredible achievements this year! We are very proud to represent such a talented assortment of authors and look forward to many more success stories in 2015.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Maddy, Rosie, Cara and Rachael!
