Pan Mac signs Spencer's 'joyful' debut novel in two-book deal

Pan Macmillan has signed In a New York Minute from podcaster, comedian and debut novelist Kate Spencer in a two-book deal.

Publishing director Gillian Green acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Joelle Dieu, director of subsidiary rights at Grand Central Publishing at Hachette US. Pan Macmillan will publish the novel in original trade paperback with an early e-book in March 2022, followed by a mass-market paperback in 2023.

The novel was inspired by Spencer’s enduring love of romcoms and her time living in New York, leading Entertainment Weekly to describe it as “very Nora Ephron”. The book follows a mismatched couple whose chance encounter on the New York subway when the train doors rip the woman's dress open goes viral.

Spencer’s podcast “Forever35” has over four million downloads and the UK is the show’s fourth biggest market after the US, Canada and Australia.

Green said: “I’m so thrilled to be publishing Kate Spencer’s debut romantic comedy, In a New York Minute. It’s an utterly joyful, fun and escapist novel which, as well as being a virtual love letter to New York, offers a fresh, funny take on meet-cutes. It’s a perfect rom com for fans of The Flat Share and One Day in December —'You’ve Got Mail' for the 21st century.”