Souvenir snaps up Rebecca Seal's solo offering

Souvenir Press will publish a book about “how to thrive as a solo worker” by freelance journalist and “Sunday Brunch” contributor Rebecca Seal.

Publisher Rebecca Gray bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada to Solo from Antony Topping at Greene & Heaton. The book will be published in autumn 2020.

“There are hundreds of self-help books about success, happiness, business and productivity – but none of them address one crucial topic: how to cope with working alone,” Souvenir Press said. “Inspired by the author’s decade as a freelancer, Solo is for anyone who works alone, whether as a consultant, a freelancer or an entrepreneur, for a few hours a day, or all day, every day and everywhere, with a laptop and a phone. What Rebecca Seal aims to do is to help fellow solo workers cope with the demands of solitary work, using the best and most recent ideas in psychology, economics, business and social science – covering topics ranging from how to best shape your surroundings and build a network to how to deal with feeling stuck, how to mitigate the harmful effects of social media, and whether solitude might actually help solo workers to thrive (in the right conditions).

Gray said: “Rebecca Seal has spent a decade thinking about how to work alone and like it, and that’s what makes her perfect to write this book. She’ll use her own experience, seek out other solo workers and apply the soloist’s lens to masses of research and evidence-based advice to create an all-round picture of what success looks like as someone who works alone. And as a freelancer herself, I know she’ll deliver on time. I’m so glad she’s joining the growing Souvenir list.”

Seal said: “This book has been living in my head for more than six years, and I'm thrilled that it is now turning into something real. This is the book I wish I had owned when I started working alone, and I have really high hopes for it helping others in my position as well as long term solo workers in all industries. Working with Profile Books and Souvenir Press feels like such luck, I can hardly believe it.”

Seal is a freelance journalist, editor, TV presenter and award-winning author based in London. Her writing has appeared in the FT, Guardian, Sunday Times, Men’s Health, Grazia and Psychologies among others. She is also a regular contributor on Channel 4's "Sunday Brunch" and co-authors books for the Leon restaurant group