Fiction Rights Guide
2021-2022
HAPPY FAMILIES Julie Ma UK RRP £8.99 Export Price £7.99 978-1-78739-688-3 18 February 2021 198 x 129 mm
B-format, Paperback 400 pages 80,000 words Fiction / General
Winner of the 2020 Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition.
SUNSET
Written by Jessie Cave UK RRP £8.99 978-1-78739-976-1 26 May 2022 198 x 129 mm
Paperback 416 pages 100,000 words Fiction / Contemporary
Sunset was an instant Number 1 bestseller in the UK. The paperback edition will be supported by another large campaign, which we hope will lead it to reach many more. One summer can change everything...
Previous winners include Caz Frear’s Sweet Little Lies and Tracy Rees’ Amy Snow, both of which were published to great success.
Ruth and Hannah are sisters. Bonded by love and friendship, they are perplexingly different characters.
Refreshing and original, this has the charm of The Rosie Project, the warmth of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and the magic of Gavin and Stacey.
Hannah is radiant, organised and hard working. Ruth is forever single and totally aimless. Together they are invincible.
Uplifting and heartwarming, this is the perfect feel-good read for a winter in lockdown. Totally unique in setting, Happy Families breathes life into a world that is familiar yet intriguing to all readers. Set in rural Wales, Happy Families shines a tender, funny and heartwarming light on the lives of three generations of a Chinese immigrant family. When was the last time you paid much attention to the person behind the counter of your local Chinese takeaway? Amy is thirty-four and has just given up her glittering career in the big (Welsh) city to move back in with her grandfather, returning to work in the small-town Chinese takeaway where she spent her bookish and boring childhood. Why? That’s a secret she won’t tell. Just like the secret of why her grandfather, Ah Goong, and her faith, TC Li, haven’t spoken to each other in thirty years. Weirder still, they’ve lived in the same small flat above the takeaway for the majority of those years, with Amy’s mother Joan acting as their unfortunate go-between and buffer. Now Amy’s parents have moved, leaving her in charge of looking after the old man. But then Ah Goong collapses in the street and time is running out if Amy wants to play happy families before it’s too late. Julie Ma was born and raised in Carmarthen after her grandfather arrived in Wales from China in the 1920s. Her parents set up a Chinese takeaway in the 1970s and she took over the business with her brother in 2008. As the child of parents who didn’t speak English well, her love of reading and writing came from school and a legendary bookshop called Derrick Williams that allowed children to browse for hours. This her her first novel.
Every summer they go on a budget holiday together where they bicker, laugh, fight and make up. But this time is different. Something bad happens. And now everything is changed forever. This bittersweet love story is about needing someone else as much as they need you. It is an ode to our most powerful bonds, how they build us and break us, and how, when all seems lost, we can find joy in the most unexpected places. Jessie Cave is an actress, writer and illustrator, best known for playing Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films. She has had three critically acclaimed and sell-out solo shows, the most recent of which, Sunrise, has had several runs at the Soho Theatre and toured nationally in 2019. She has featured on 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, as well as appearing regularly on Sky One’s Trollied. Other drama credits include Call the Midwife, Black Mirror and Glue. She has also had a book of illustrations published, titled Lovesick (Ebury, 2016).
THE LOCKSMITH Linda Calvey UK RRP £12.99 978-1-78739-526-8 18 March 2021 234 x 153 mm Hardback
384 pages 90,000 words Fiction / Crime & Mystery Export Trade Paperback: 978-1-78739-527-5 £12.99
The addictive first novel from an author who was at the heart of crime in the East End. Perfect for fans of Martina Cole, Jessie Keane and Kimberley Chambers. Huge year-long Marketing and PR campaign planned including high-profile endorsement from Martina Cole. Most authors write what they know. Linda Calvey writes what she lived. They grew up with nothing. Just a regular family scraping by, living an honest life while crime ruled the East End. Until all that honesty and all that hard work left them with nothing. Poor, destitute and hungry, young Ruby decides to pull them from the ashes. It starts as one job, one step outside the law. Yet that one step sets her on a path - straight to the top. But in the East End you don’t build an empire without making a few enemies... Welcome to the underbelly of London, where criminals run the streets and one woman will do anything to protect her family.
THE GAME
Written by Linda Calvey Export Price £12.99 978-1-78739-944-0 31 March 2022 234 x 153 mm
Paperback 400 pages 90,000 words Fiction / Thriller
The first in the series, The Locksmith, was a Top 15 bestseller and there is a huge campaign planned for the paperback edition in late 2021. The Locksmith has one of the best average review ratings on Amazon – people loved it and have been messaging Linda asking for more of Ruby’s story. Linda has effectively been acquitted of murder which makes her 18 years in prison a miscarriage of justice – a story that will be made public soon. Like The Sopranos, The Godfather and generally any story about crime families, there are two main plot arcs: one, the goal is always to become legitimate; two, blood is always thicker than water. Set in the Costa del Sol, The Game is the second installment in Linda Calvey’s bestselling crime saga about a woman who runs an East End crime family. For fans of Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers. Linda Calvey has served 18 years behind bars, making her Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner. She moved to 14 different prisons during her time inside, sharing a prison with Rose West and Myra Hindley. Since her release, Linda has gone straight and leads a quiet life. She is a proud grandmother and finally has her family back together again. The Locksmith was her first novel.
Draft Cover
THE CLEANER Mark Dawson UK RRP £8.99 Export Price £7.99 978-1-78739-519-0 10 December 2020 198 x 129 mm
THE DRIVER
B-format, Paperback 384 pages 76,900 words
Written by Mark Dawson Export Price £12.99 978-1-78739-704-0 6 January 2022 234 x 153 mm
Fiction / Thriller & Suspense
The first in a wide-ranging series: John Milton is the British Jack Reacher, and will travel the world righting wrongs. This is a major series launch for Welbeck: The Cleaner hardback overperformed and we expect good things from the paperback.
The Cleaner, Mark Dawson’s first novel, was a Top 15 bestseller in hardback and has now sold 50,000 copies (and continuing) in paperback in all markets.
John Milton is the man the government call when they want a problem to vanish. But what happens when he’s the one that needs to disappear?
eBook sales of John Milton books have rocketed in the past year and we are confident we will match those with consistently strong print sales.
Mark Dawson is the bestselling author of the John Milton, Beatrix Rose and Isabella Rose series, and has sold over 3 million books. He lives in Wiltshire with his family.
He has a job driving a taxi around the streets of San Francisco. He has his anonymity and his solitude. Being invisible has become a comfortable habit. He doesn’t want to be found. But when a girl he drives to a party goes missing, Milton is worried. Especially when two dead bodies are discovered and the police start treating him as their prime suspect. Milton is a fugitive from the British Secret Service and a man in his position needs extra attention like he needs a hole in the head.
www.markjdawson.com
Mark Dawson UK RRP £12.99 978-1-78739-658-6 29 April 2021 234 x 153 mm Hardback
384 pages 80,000 words Fiction / Thriller & Suspense Export Trade Paperback: 978-1-78739-659-3 £12.99
The Cleaner, the first in the series, became a top 15 bestseller in its first week and received rave reviews across print and social media. The hugely succesful John Milton series has already sold over 2 million e-books worldwide. Saint Death is the second installment. Mark Dawson has 200,000 strong following on social media and massive international newsletter following. John Milton has been off the grid for six months. He surfaces in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and immediately finds himself drawn into a vicious battle with the narco-gangs that control the borderlands. Milton saves the life of an idealistic young journalist who has been targeted for execution but the only way to keep her safe is to smuggle her into Texas. Working with the only untouchable cops in the city, and a bounty hunter whose motives are unclear, Milton must keep her safe until the crossing can be made. But when the man looking for her is the legendary assassin Santa Muerta – Saint Death – that’s a lot easier said than done...
75,000 words Fiction / Thriller
The John Milton series has gone from strength to strength for Welbeck and our aim of reaching a massive global print readership is being realised.
The series has already sold over 3 million e-books worldwide and now finally comes to mass-market print.
JOHN MILTON 2: SAINT DEATH
Hardback 352 pages
*****
THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING SERIES CONTINUES Mark Dawson is the bestselling author of the John Milton, Beatrix Rose and Isabella Rose series, and has sold over 4 million books. He lives in Wiltshire with his family. www.markjdawson.com
As unpleasant secrets leak out and the body count rises, one thing is for sure. Milton might just be the right guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.
For all enquiries:
Vasiliki Machaira Head of Adult Rights vasiliki.machaira@welbeckpublishing.com
Ar twork from The Plant Hunter Written by T.L. Mogford
@welbeckpublish @welbeckpublish @welbeckuk www.welbeckpublishing.com