Australian mother and small-business owner Rebecca James has sold world rights to her first two young adult novels for major bucks, going from mom to millionaire overnight after her manuscript was pulled out of the slush pile by a U.K. agent. The rights to Beautiful Malice and its sequel sold for $600,000 in the U.S. alone, according to the Wall Street Journal, who calls James the next J.K. Rowling.Since the days of big advances for the heck of it seem to have disappeared with the recession, this signals that Bantam Dell expects a Rowling-sized payout once the books are published.
Beautiful Malice is a story of the friendship of two girls. One has lost her sister in a horrible murder; the other is a chilling and charming party girl. The series has been described as Twilight without the vampires ----and with the sex.
Kate Miciak, editorial director of Bantam Books, who won U.S. rights, said, “You had only to read the opening sentence ---“I did not go to Alice’s funeral’---to know that you had instantly fallen under the thrall of a strong narrative voice.” The book is scheduled for a September 2010 publication in the U.S.
From BookPage January 2010
