Laura Bates strikes deal for her YA debut

Simon & Schuster UK has bought The Burning, the first YA novel by Laura Bates, founder of The Everyday Sexism Project.

Commissioning editor Lucy Rogers acquired world rights from Georgia Garrett at Rogers, Coleridge and White and will publish next year in April.                       

Rogers said: “Not only is this gripping, page-turning YA but it also cleverly and unsettlingly exposes the age-old prejudices that girls still face today. Laura is the leading voice of a new wave of feminism and we’re honoured to be introducing her to a whole new army of readers.”

The story is about Anna Clark, whose social media profiles are empty when she arrives in a small fishing village in the middle of the school year. As time starts to run out on her secrets, Anna finds herself drawn to Maggie, a local woman accused of witchcraft centuries earlier.

S&S previously published Bates' Misogynation, a collection of essays about sexism.