Michaelides' debut nets 'unprecedented' 50 foreign sales

Alex Michaelides’ novel The Silent Patient has reached 50 foreign sales, described as “a record-breaker" for a thriller debut. 

The landmark global rights grab comes three years after Orion acquired the book for six figures, in one of the biggest debut deals agency Rogers, Coleridge & White (RCW) had secured in the previous five-year period. RCW subsequently secured the largest number of territories for a UK thriller pre-publication – 37 – three months before publishing, with Brad Pitt’s film company bagging film rights. Since publication in February 2019, The Silent Patient has now sold to 50 foreign publishers altogether which RCW believe is a record for a debut thriller. 

Sam Copeland, a director at RCW, said: "It is incredibly rare for a book to get 50 foreign sales – once a decade rare. I certainly think it is a record-breaker for a crime or thriller novel. I can’t find any others that are even close." 

Tristan Kendrick, senior rights agent at RCW, deemed it an “unprecedented achievement”. 

“We are so excited to see Alex hit the magic 50,” he commented on behalf of the foreign rights team. “We’ve hit 50 before, but never for a debut. It was extraordinary to have a record breaking 37 international deals in place for Alex before publication even took place. Seeing how special his relationship with his editors has become, and watching them go on to publish him brilliantly around the world means so much to us as a rights team. He has worked incredibly hard with his publishers, and we could not be happier he now has 50 of them.” 

Kendrick has high hopes for the former screenwriter's second thriller set in Cambridge University, The Maidens, which will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in June. “It’s the perfect platform to launch The Maidens to readers worldwide.”  Television rights for this second novel recently went to Stone Village Television. 

The Silent Patient has sold 17,210 in hardback and 140,389 copies in paperback excluding lockdown sales via Nielsen BookScan in the UK and it was the 30th bestselling book overall for the full year in 2020. Michaelides described the inspiration behind the thriller to The Bookseller as "the collision in my mind between Agatha Christie and Euripides".

Michaelides was born in Cyprus before moving to England and is now based in London. He has worked on films with Rosamund Pike, Uma Thurman and Tim Roth and has also studied psychotherapy.