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Blackthorn and Bookouture are Celebrating :)

Today, is the second anniversary of both the launch of my first Blackthorn novel, Blood Shadows, and also the launch of its fantastic publisher, Bookouture.

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 Above: Happy 2nd Birthday, Blackthorn! What a 2 years it has been!!

Bookouture are currently celebrating with cake and bubbles, and rightly so! Since signing me, they have gone on to acquire many exceptional authors – both debut and established. Bookouture have had eight Amazon top 100 hits in the UK, three in the US, two in Canada and even one in France. They’ve sold hundreds of thousands of eBooks – and quite a few paperbacks, too! This week alone, they have three books in the Amazon UK top 100!

From being a one-man-band consisting of its Founder and Managing Director, Oliver Rhodes, Bookouture has expanded its publishing team too. Claire Bord, formerly of Avon (HarperCollins), became Bookouture’s Publishing Director with the aim of developing and expanding their publishing programme. As part of that, Keshini Naidoo (previously having worked with eBook bestsellers, also at Avon) joined the team as Senior Commissioning Editor with a focus on crime and thriller titles. To keep up with increased demand, the super-supportive Kim Nash joined as Bookouture’s Publicity Manager. Bookouture also linked up with the Lorella Belli Literary Agency who has since sold rights in France, Germany, Norway, Italy, Turkey, India and the Middle East, as well as doing deals for audio rights.

It’s amazing how far Bookouture have come, and I am immensely proud to have been there from the beginning. Bookouture has undoubtedly been the best thing to happen to Blackthorn. It might be a small, independent publisher, but darn they’re exceptional at what they do (proof above)! With ‘Big 5’ experience within a dedicated, hard-working, author-centric team of professionals, it’s no wonder that, along with the success of their books, Bookouture continues to be so highly praised by its authors.

As for me, it’s hard to believe that it was two years ago that I held a copy of my book for the first time; that I was a bag of nerves waiting to see what PNR reviewers, let alone readers, would make of my debut, Blood Shadows.

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 Above: A sample of reviews from the launch of Blackthorn, Nov 2012

Thankfully, many bloggers and reviewers embraced Blackthorn – and so did many more readers. If you’re reading this now, you’re likely to be one of those very readers who, like Bookouture, decided to take a punt on a new PNR series. You’re probably part of the reason why, through your reviews, ratings or word-of-mouth recommendations, the rest of the series has been signed. Thank you. Because being signed by a terrific publisher may be one of the best things to happen to an author, but so are great supporters. I have the privilege of having some of the best. 🙂

So before I leave you with the trailer that kicked the series off two years ago (which includes the original cover before the rebrand), I can’t do so without first wishing all my U.S. followers a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Comments

cc mackenzie

Yay!!!

Happy Birthday! And this is just the beginning! Woot!

Lindsay J. Pryor

Thank you so very much, Christine!! Two WHOLE years… I can’t believe it!