Rights meetings just outside the International Rights Center at the 2025 London Book Fair. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also: Emma Lowe Named Director of London Book Fair
Three Days of Busy Rights Trades
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, one tradition of London Book Fair, which ran last week, is a show-closing list of “top deals” struck during the course of the trade show.
This year’s International Rights Center is said by organizers to have sold out, with 550 tables, 10 percent more than the 500 tables of 2024, and this year’s trading center was entirely on first floor, using parts of both the National and Grand halls.
Here is a selection of deals reported from the three days of the trade show by London Book Fair. All information here is from the London Book Fair and has not been independently verified by Publishing Perspectives.
2025 LBF Day One Deals
- Publisher Natasha Bardon at HarperVoyager acquired British Commonwealth rights to a new fantasy series from author Jay Kristoff.
- New independent Akoya Publishing acquired world rights for North of the Winter Sun: What I Heard in the Waves by Norwegian author Veronica Skotnes from Oslo’s Cappelen Damm Agency.
- Little, Brown imprint Abacus has acquired the debut memoir Splav: Adventures with My Family on the River Spava, from Mary Ethna Black.
- HarperCollins UK acquired author Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, a full-length continuation of Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder featuring Miss Marple.
- Dead Ink Books’ editor Harriet Hirshman has acquired the rights to No Body, No Crime, a romance-action thriller book by American author Tess Sharpe.
- Cara Armstrong, editorial director at DK Red, has bought world rights to Menolicious: Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause by broadcaster and menopause campaigner Mariella Frostup and chef and founder of the Great Taste Company Belles Berry.
- Comedian and actress Sophie Duker’s first novel, Dong, has been acquired by Suzie Dooré, Borough Press’ editor-at-large.
- Macmillan Children’s Books has acquired five middle-grade titles from bestselling author and illustrator Rob Biddulph in a major six-figure deal starting with The Moonhaven Chronicles.
- Bonnier Books UK imprint Zaffre has acquired Jesse’s Wish, a new novel from bestselling author Heather Morris.
- Simon & Schuster has acquired the rights to Catriona Byers’ new novel Morgue: Death, Tragedy and the Birth of True Crime in Nineteenth-century Paris.
- Anne Meadows, director of Picador, has acquired poet Stephanie Sy-Quia’s debut novel A Private Man.
- Sphere has acquired a three-book deal for a romance series from Tierney Page, beginning with The Other Brother.
- Fig Tree has pre-empted the UK and Commonwealth rights to Miss Archer, a debut novel from screenwriter and playwright, Jordan Harrison, while the US rights were acquired by William Morrow in a 13-way auction.
- Canongate has acquired the world English rights to author Chloe Dalton’s second book, Pet.
- Oxford University Press Children’s has acquired a four-book diary-format book deal from author-illustrator Harriet Muncaster, with the first being The Diary of Wiska Wildflower: The New School.
- Ten Speed Graphic, Piatkus, and Entangled Publishing have acquired a six-book deal to publish graphic novels of romantasy superstar author Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling Empyrean series.
2025 LBF Day Two Deals
- Borough Press has acquired the rights to Henry, a contemporary retelling of Henry VIII’s six wives’ experiences by debut novelist Caroline Wray.
- Seven Dials has won a 16-publisher UK auction for The Steps, the long-awaited memoir from filmmaker and actor Sylvester Stallone.
- Canongate is to publish At Sea, the debut adult novel from former engineer turned author and activist Yassim Abdel-Magied, writing as YM Abdel-Magied.
- Pan Macmillan has acquired the rights to We are Not a Family, a “survival guide to personalities” by Nell Montgomery and Elisa Morris.
- Ebury Self has acquired We Can Do Hard Things by sisters Glennon and Amanda Doyle and Glennon’s wife Abby Wambach.
- Canongate has acquired the rights to Meridian, a new genre-bending romance novel from Patrick Ness.
- DK Children’s has signed Classics podcaster Liv Albert’s first two children’s books: two illustrated retellings based on Greek and Roman myth.
- Headline has pre-empted The Sea Stone Sisters, a duel-timeline novel by Eleanor Buchanan.
- Granta Books has acquired Open Heavens, a new novel by Danish author Jonas Eika in an exclusive submission.
- Sphere has acquired Remain, a romantic-thriller collaboration from Nicholas Sparks and M Night Shyamalan.
- John Murray has acquired Alan Opts Out by author Courtney Maum in a five-figure pre-empt.
- Baskerville has acquired The Burning Library, a thriller from bestselling author Gilly Macmillan.
- Sphere has acquired Heart Racer by Kentucky-based author Megan Avery.
- HarperVoyager and eight other international HarperCollins divisions will be publishing a trilogy from bestselling American author Lexi Ryan in her first move into adult fantasy, beginning with Night Tide.
- Faber & Faber has acquired About to Fall Apart from author Ashley Hickson-Lovence.
2025 LBF Day Three Deals
- Hachette UK’s John Murray Press imprint Renegade Books and Hachette Book Group’s Grand Central Publishing have jointly pre-empted Faith Gladwin’s horror debut Révérence for six figures.
- Little, Brown imprint Abacus bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to historian Tom Holland’s new title The New Reformation: How the 60s Created Our Moral World, from Patrick Walsh at PEW Literary. Walsh sold North American rights to Lara Heimert at Basic Books.
- Chatto & Windus acquired World English rights for Anders Lustgarten’s novel Kill Billionaire.
- Serpent’s Tail has snapped up actor Rosie Day’s Vipers from YMU.
- Joe Wicks will move to Bonnier Books UK’s new wellness and lifestyle imprint LEAP for a two-book deal.
- Batch has announced a new period of expansion following landmark USA deals with Hachette and Simon & Schuster.
- HarperVoyager has acquired Katie Ellis-Brown and Becky Hunter’s Blood Bound – written under the pseudonym Ellis Hunter – in a six-figure deal.
- Phoenix will publish the “heartbreaking and revelatory memoir from bestselling novelist Louise Doughty, On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love.
- Penguin’s Michael Joseph senior commissioning editor Grace Long has acquired Iliana Xander’s self-published Love, Mom in a 24-hour pre-empt, plus two other books.
- HQ has won a seven-way auction for Rose Ferguson’s The Reset, “a guide to reclaiming health and balance.”
- Harper Nonfiction has bought a memoir from tennis legend Boris Becker about his life during and after his prison sentence for hiding £2.5 million (US$3.3 million) in assets and loans.
- DK Red is set to publish a book on intrusive thoughts from anxiety specialist and counsellor Jenna Overbaugh.
More from Publishing Perspectives on London Book Fair is here, more on rights and licensing in the book industry is here, more on book fairs and trade shows in the world publishing industry is here, and more on the United Kingdom’s publishing market is here.