SRL Publishing picks up Lord’s award-winning The Disappeared

SRL Publishing has acquired The Disappeared by Amy Lord, which was previously published in 2019 by Unbound but affected by the Grantham closure.

Stuart Debar, creative director of SRL Publishing, bought world English-language rights directly from the author, with the book – which won a Northern Writers Award and was longlisted for the inaugural Bath Novel Award – scheduled for release in spring 2024.

Debar said: “The Disappeared was affected by the closure of the Grantham Distribution and therefore Amy was looking for a new publisher. She came across my tweet, where I shared a Bookseller article about it, where I said we’d be happy to look at anyone and their books who had been affected as we had already signed another novel (Robert Welbourn’s Ideal Angels/Unbound) which was also affected.

“With book bans again in the news, Amy’s dystopian debut imagines life in a broken Britain where literature is considered dangerous and books have the power to become weapons against an authoritarian government. Told from the perspective of characters on opposing sides, the story follows university lecturer, Clara, as she decides to rebel against the government that took her father and destroyed her family.”

Lord is a writer from north-east England, has an MA in Creative Writing and mentors emerging northern writers.