Headline snaps up high-concept debut The Feed within hours

Headline has bought an “electrifying, high-concept debut thriller” by Nick Clark Windo in a six-figure deal.

Commissioning editor Emily Griffin struck the deal for The Feed with Juliet Mushens at United Talent Agency, within 24 hours of submission. HarperCollins US executive editor David Pomerico has also snapped up US rights in a six-figure deal at auction and Vulkan bought Serbian rights at auction. More deals are expected during the London Book Fair.

The Feed is set in a near-future world where people can download a social media feed directly into their brands. A couple, Kate and Tom, try to kerb their addiction to the virtual world but when ‘The Feed’ goes down, society crumbles and their six-year-old daughter goes missing.

Griffin said: “Reading The Feed is an experience quite unlike any other, and the novel presents a reality that feels terrifyingly close to our own. This is a clever, timely and ambitious thriller with an incredibly human core. It asks us to consider how our addiction to consuming online media is affecting us as a society and how much further things can progress. But it also asks what makes us human, and how far a person should go to survive. Nick is a hugely talented writer and we can’t wait to launch this novel with the fanfare it deserves."

Clark Windo was a student on Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel course. He studied English Literature at Cambridge and now works as a film producer and communications coach. He said: "First to be working on the novel’s final drafts with Juliet, and now to be launching The Feed with Emily and the Headline team is a series of dreams come true. To have so many people with such energy, drive and experience taking the novel into the future with me is an absolute thrill."

Headline will launch The Feed in hardback, trade paperback and e-book in early 2018, following up with a mass-market paperback later in the year.