Publisher Rights Update: Australia's 'Two Steps Forward' in Six Territories

Co-written by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist, ‘Two Steps Forward’ is proving a rights-sales hit for Melbourne-based Text Publishing.

Text Publishing’s July-December catalog is available here

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Seven Territories Optioned

Making a good showing in international rights sales, Two Steps Forward has sold into six territories and is optioned in seven others, Text Publishing’s rights and export coordinator Khadija Caffoor in Melbourne tells Publishing Perspectives.

The book is described as a “romantic journey told in alternating chapters” in which two people set out to walk the Camino from Cluny, France. Its two authors are married. Graeme Simsion is the author of The Rosie Project, The Best of Adam Sharp, and The Rosie Effect. Anne Buist is the author of Medea’s Curse and Dangerous to Know.

Territories into which rights already have been sold are:

Canada, HarperCollins Canada
Germany, S. Fischer Verlag
Israel, Tchelet Books
Netherlands, Luitingh-Sijthoff
UK & Commonwealth, except for Australia/New Zealand and Canada, Two Roads
USA, William Morrow

In addition, there are options out to international publishers that have published Simsion’s The Best of Adam Sharp in the past. Those include Brazil—Record; Czech Republic—Mladá Fronta; Estonia—Eesti Raamat; France—Éditions Robert Laffont; Hungary—Libri Kiadó; Italy—Longanesi; and Poland—Bukowy Las.

Text Publishing will release its edition of Two Steps Forward in Australia and New Zealand in October, Caffoor says, and that month will also be at Frankfurt Book Fair (October 11-15) at stand A60 in Hall 6.2.

Prior to that, the publishing house will also be at the Canberra Writers Festival, with Simsion and Buist on hand.

Simsion, a native of Auckland, writes not only novels but also short stories, plays, screenplays, and nonfiction.

Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. She has over twenty-five years’ clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry, and works with protective services and the legal system in cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder.

In a prepared statement, Jennifer Lambert, editorial director with one of the acquiring houses, HarperCollins Canada, is quoted, saying, “HarperCollins is proud to be Graeme Simsion’s longtime publisher in Canada, and now to have the opportunity to publish the funny, affecting new novel co-written by Graeme and Anne Buist.”

Publishing house rights directors and literary agents: let us know about your rights sales. Contact Porter@PublishingPerspectives.com

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson is a non-resident fellow of Trends Research & Advisory, and he has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.