Boldwood Books launches traditional print programme with The Works

Boldwood Books, Amanda Ridout's commercial fiction publishing venture, has announced a host of new author acquisitions and revealed it is beginning a traditional print programme in March with high-street retailer The Works.

While the author tally for Boldwood Books has been brought to 32, the list is set to more than treble by the end of this year, increasing from 23 published titles to almost 90 in total.

Intent on showcasing "the very best in commercial fiction", with a focus on "strong narration, great characters and global appeal", new signings range from women‚Äôs fiction writers Sarah Bennett and Alison Sherlock, cosy crime doyenne Frances Evesham and Australian domestic noir author Kirsty Ferguson to début novelist Leonie Mack.

All authors have been contracted on multi-book deals and will be published in every format simultaneously in all English-language territories. As previously described when the new outfit launched, authors do not get advances, but are offered a "fair share" across all the formats with the "proceeds of success shared equally".

Up until now all books have been published in multiple formats, each with an e-book and audiobook, both physical and digital, and have a print-on-demand option available, with direct to consumers and to bricks and mortar retailers via Ingrams. While this will continue, Boldwood is additionally commencing a traditional print programme with high-street retailer The Works, copies for which will be printed by CPI. Ridout said this was "just the start" with plans afoot to go to other high-street outlets too. On top of this, Boldwood will be offering large print editions of every title on its list and will be working with its partner Ulverscroft to sell them into the global library sector alongside Boldwood physical audio product.

Ridout said: "There is no better way to celebrate Boldwood’s first birthday than to add more exciting authors to our list–including our first Australian writer. It has been an exhilarating and successful first year, putting our company infrastructure jigsaw together, and working with our brilliant authors, retailers and distributors to reach nearly 200,000 readers in every part of the globe in under six months. We are looking forward to taking our next steps into traditional print publishing in 2020 and to building our multi-format publishing programme with 65 new titles planned."

Among Boldwood's latest signings, Bennett, the author of several romantic fiction trilogies, is publishing the first book in her new Mermaids Point trilogy in spring 2021. Evesham is republishing her Exham-on-Sea mysteries, set in her home county of Somerset, with the next instalment due in autumn 2020. She is also starting a new cosy crime series set in rural Herefordshire with the first title being published in June 2020. Crime writer Ferguson, the first Australian author on the Boldwood list, is publishing Never Tell with Boldwood in June 2020. Début author Mack, based in Germany, is meanwhile publishing her first book, My Christmas Number One, in September 2020.

Boldwood Books was first announced in January 2019, having secured funding from six private investors to launch the press, and revealed a 20-strong launch list in June 2019. Ridout left her role as c.e.o. of Head of Zeus in November 2017 and stepped down from the HoZ board in the summer of 2018.