Quercus pre-empts debut from creators of the 'Shit You Should Care About' blog

Quercus has acquired Make It Make Sense, the debut book from the authors behind the blog “Shit You Should Care About”, in a six-figure pre-empt.

Publishing director Jane Sturrock, Hachette Australia’s Scott Henderson and Hachette New Zealand’s Kate Stephenson bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Abigail Bergstrom at Bergstrom Studio. Quercus will publish on 18th July 2024.

German rights have been pre-empted by Rowohlt. Alex Cliff at RML is handling translation rights and Abigail Bergstrom is handling North American rights.

“Shit You Should Care About” was launched as a WordPress blog by three best friends from the back of a political science lecture. Today, Quercus describes it as “a global ecosystem of content” that includes two podcasts.

In Make It Make Sense, blog co-founder Lucy Blakiston and contributor Bel Hawkins share a collage of cultural analysis, anecdotes, personal essays and poems, interplayed like a conversation between friends. “So sharp they’ll make you wince, so honest that you might feel uncomfortable with what’s reflecting back at you, so funny you’ll want to take a photo and send it to your best friend,” the publisher says.

Blakiston said: “We are excited about launching this book into the world! For years, we’ve had offers from publishers but they’ve never felt like the book we wanted to write or the one we knew our audience wanted to read – no one needed another book about how to read the news or go viral online.

"It wasn’t until Bel joined as a contributor and started writing with us about the modern experience that we knew we’d hit a nerve. It’s a life’s work to make it make sense, and we intend to create something tangible to help us figure it out together.”

Sturrock said: “The proposal got me at the line ‘I’m so tired, I feel like a melted candle’. Luce and Bel’s writing is so fresh and funny and has already won them millions of followers online. They have that special knack of reflecting the fixations, encounters and mistakes that so many of us experience and reframing them in a way that helps make sense of it all – I can’t wait to work with them on their first book.”