Nine Eight Books bags titles by O’Brien, Cragg and Unsworth for 2023 

Bonnier Books UK’s dedicated music imprint Nine Eight Books has announced three new titles for 2023 by Dr Lucy O’Brien, Michael Cragg and Cathi Unsworth.

Publishing director Pete Selby acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from agent Jane Turnbull to Lead Sister, a “pioneering biography re-evaluating the life and legacy of transcendent musician Karen Carpenter” by O’Brien, academic, writer and musician, for publication in March 2023.

Selby has also snapped up UK and Commonwealth rights to the debut book by Guardian writer Cragg, Reach for the Stars, which looks at the fame and fallout of British pop music at the turn of the millennium, from Matthew Hamilton, and is also scheduled to be published in March.

World rights have also been acquired by Selby to music journalist Unsworth’s Season of the Witch, the first book according to the publisher to cover the inception and rise of goth – one of the world’s most enduringly popular musical subcultures. Rights were bought from agent Rupert Crew and it will be released in May.

Selby, who launched Nine Eight Books in 2021, said: “It’s been a thrilling, somewhat overwhelming first year for Nine Eight. I couldn’t be happier with how our books have connected with our readers and across the media. From Miki to Pat Arnold, Will Hodgkinson to Gordon King, when you’ve been working on a really special manuscript for 18 months it’s incredibly satisfying to release that into the wild and see that everyone feels the same.

“Any publisher is only ever as good as their authors and it’s been a privilege to help share the stories of everyone on Nine Eight. I feel incredibly lucky that so many gifted writers placed their faith in us when we were merely a logo, a romantic concept and a hard sell over a cup of coffee. But this is just the beginning.”