Tor lands three more from 'superstar' Blake

Tor UK has bought three more books from Olivie Blake. 

The Pan Macmillan imprint acquired the titles with publisher Bella Pagan negotiating UK and British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Chris Scheina, assistant director at St Martin’s Press. Tor US executive editor Lindsey Hall acquired North American rights.

The new works will include Januaries, a collection of existing and new short stories, plus an untitled contemporary gothic novel and an untitled romantic novel. Tor will publish Januaries in October 2024 with each standalone novel to follow from 2025 and 2026 respectively. 

Pagan said: “Olivie Blake is an absolute superstar of a writer. Her characters will break your heart, her plots are a knife to the gut. I can’t wait to publish her next extraordinary pieces of fiction in the UK. Readers should brace themselves now.” 

Blake is the pseudonym of Alexene Farol Follmuth. The author, who is based in Los Angeles, said: “I am so excited to make magic all over again with my incomparable publishing team at Tor UK. These forthcoming titles have lived in my heart a long time in various forms, and I am honoured and grateful they’ve found a home in the UK." 

The deal follows a one-book deal with Tor, for Alone With You in the Ether, announced last year. Macmillan Children’s Books also signed a multi-book deal in 2022. Pan Mac has published eight of Blake’s books so far with Masters of Death due in August, originally Blake’s debut which was self-published in 2018. She told The Bookseller in May: “It is amazing how much things can change. Five years in publishing time is crazy. At that time all the agents were like, ‘Do not send me vampires. I’m not going to read it’.”

Blake has written several adult speculative fiction projects including TikTok hit the Atlas trilogy. As Follmuth, she has written YA rom-com My Mechanical Romance (Pan Macmillan).