Pinborough strikes six-book deal across Orion Fiction and Gollancz

Orion has struck a new six-book deal with Sarah Pinborough for crime and fantasy titles across the Orion Fiction and Gollancz imprints, along with plans to rejacket and revise the author’s fantasy backlist.

Orion Fiction publisher Sam Eades and Gollancz editorial director Bethan Morgan brokered deals with Veronique Baxter at David Higham.The first two books in the new deal, acquired for world all-language rights, will be a prequel and sequel to Pinborough’s British Fantasy Award-winning trilogy the Tales from the Kingdoms, which reimagined the Grimms’ fairytales “in a trail-blazing feminist fusion of dark romantasy and gothic horror long before the BookTok boom”.  

The original three books (Poison, Charm and Beauty) will be fully revised and rejacketed in fresh new 10th anniversary editions alongside the prequel and sequel. All five instalments of the relaunched series will then be published in October 2024 in paperback, e-book and audiobook, with hardback special editions. 

Gollancz will also be reissuing eight backlist titles in the coming years. These include the two fantasy series The Dog-Faced Gods and The Nowhere Chronicles, plus the YA thrillers The Death House and 13 Minutes. The Nowhere Chronicles will also get audiobook editions for the first time. 

The other four novels in the new deal, acquired for UK and Commonwealth rights, will be a mixture of crime, thriller and SFF, published from 2025 onwards across both imprints. 

Eades said: “Pinborough’s writing reminds me of the unique power fiction has to take us into new worlds and expand our understanding of the world we live in. As a storyteller she is someone who pushes the boundaries of genre, with a rebellious streak and emotional resonance that makes her a dream come true to publish.” 

Morgan added: “Every single second of this journey has been a riotous joy. It is an immense privilege to be able to not only wave our wands over 11 books by one of the most effortlessly magnetic storytellers writing today, but to also be a part of shaping her next shelf of genre-disrupting and reinventing work. These extraordinary stories will be at the very heart of all our stratospheric plans for the next few years and far beyond.” 

Pinborough said: “Bethan and Sam blew me away with their plans for our future together and I can’t wait to start working on this next chapter of my career with them.”