Serpent's Tail scores hat trick of débuts as Brown steps up

Serpent’s Tail has snapped up three début novels as Luke Brown is promoted to the Profile Books imprint’s acting publishing director after Hannah Westland leaves in May for Jonathan Cape. 

Brown acquired world all-language rights to Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire from Rufus Purdy and has sold German rights to Leonora Tomaschoff at Dumont. Publication is scheduled for February 2024. The book is described as "a funny and moving family story with an unconventional heroine set in a remote coastal community on the Northern Irish coast".

Westland bought world English-language rights to Wild Ground by Emily Usher as part of a two-novel deal from Millie Hoskins at United Agents. The book is described “a beautifully wrought story of first love found and lost, set in 1990s Yorkshire and contemporary London". Hannah Brattesani at the Friedrich Agency on behalf of Serpent’s Tail sold North American rights in both novels to Clio Seraphim at Random House USA in a six-figure deal. Publication is scheduled for May 2024. 

Westland also signed UK and Commonwealth rights to No Small Thing by Orlaine McDonald from Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives. The synopsis says: "[The book] captures one year in the lives of three generations of Black British women in one family in South London, the past that tore them apart and the present that has brought them together". Publication is scheduled for summer 2024. 

Westland had been at Profile for 11 years following her switch from working as an RCW agent. Brown started his career at Tindall Street and worked for Profile after it acquired the indie before leaving in 2012. He returned two years ago to the publisher as Serpent’s Tail commissiong editor.    

Brown said: "Serpent’s Tail has gone from strength to strength under Hannah Westland’s stewardship, with striking new fiction winning major prizes and listings and becoming books of the year and bestsellers. We will continue to do what we do best as a proud independent: following our taste and setting trends rather than following them, publishing with the energy and invention of an always passionate team. These three debuts will introduce the world to three strikingly original voices, taking readers from the remote coast of Northern Ireland to the estates of South London and the edgelands of West Yorkshire."