S&S sweeps in for Hoover's 'phenomenal' sequel to It Ends With Us

Simon & Schuster UK has landed It Starts With Us, Colleen Hoover’s sequel to her bestselling novel It Ends With Us (S&S).

Commissioning editor Molly Crawford bought fiction, UK and Commonwealth rights from Nicole Bond at Atria Books via Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. S&S UK will publish in hardback on 18th October, and will support a global launch with a "high-impact" multi-platform marketing and publicity campaign.

"Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas," the synopsis explains. "Colleen Hoover tells fan favourite Atlas’ side of the story and shares what comes next in this eagerly awaited sequel to the number one Sunday Times bestseller It Ends with Us."

"This has been such a difficult secret to keep," Crawford said. "S&S is so proud to be the home of Colleen’s publishing and to be bringing this phenomenal book to market. It is a novel that Colleen’s fans have long been desperate to read and this is an exciting time to bring it to them, when new readers are discovering Colleen’s books every week. We’re thrilled to be able to share this news with the rest of the Cohort."

Hoover has written more than 23 novels. The prequel to her latest novel has sold more than 250,000 copies through Nielsen BookScan in the UK and has spent the last 22 weeks in the Top 10, according to the publisher. In 2015, she and her family founded a not-for-profit bookshop and a monthly book subscription service called the Bookworm Box, that has donated more than $1m to various charities to date.

"My readers have given me this amazing career and it seems only right to thank them with the sequel to It Ends With Us they’ve been asking for," she said. "I’m honoured to pick up where we left off with Lily and Atlas’ story and can’t wait to share this journey with S&S UK."