Seven YA authors collaborate on novel for MCB

Macmillan Children's Books has acquired a “unique collaborative novel” from seven UK Young Adult authors.

Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood are all contributing to Floored, which will be published in July 2018.

Commissioned by Rachel Petty, 6+ editorial director for MCB, the "seamless" novel follows the follows the lives and loves of a group of teenagers over several years, with each character written by a different author. It is told from the perspective of each character as well as a “mysterious narrator”. After they go through a traumatic experience, six strangers’ lives become intertwined, and they meet once a year to commemorate the day they met and the person they lost.

Petty said: “The UKYA community is so strong and supportive and I wanted to translate that into what I knew would be a really special collaboration. Even though it’s editorially challenging to edit seven different voices into one coherent novel, it’s been fascinating, and so much fun. The end result feels seamless – we’re keeping which author has written which character a secret and they all blend together whilst remaining totally distinct. I couldn't be more excited to share what this fantastic bunch of authors has come up with, and the timing couldn’t be better on the back of double-digit growth for our YA list. It will be our summer lead in 2018.”

Barnard, author of Beautiful Broken Things, said: “I'm beyond excited to work on this project with these brilliant, talented writers, who are individually producing some of the very best YA in the UK. I think Floored is going to be something very special, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it.”