Walker bags four more in Stowell’s Loki series

Walker Books has snapped up four more titles in Louie Stowell’s Loki: A Bad God’s Guide series, including two more novels and two non-fiction titles. 

Senior editor Non Pratt and publisher Denise Johnstone-Burt acquired world rights in all languages from Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency. The series will be published simultaneously in America by Walker Books US and by Walker Books Australia. At the time of acquisition, the series attracted pre-empts and auctions across multiple territories, with 24 foreign publishers already signed up within nine months of publication.

The publisher said: “The new acquisitions promise more mischief from Loki as he faces the challenge of navigating mortal life and proving himself virtuous enough to return to Asgard, plus two further books packed with short stories, comic strips and activities giving a wide range of young readers the chance to delve deeper into Loki’s world (and brain), revealing details of his (mis)adventures and discovering more about Norse mythology along the way.”

Book three in the series is set to publish in June 2023, and the new contracted titles will hit shelves in 2024.

Launching as Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month in February of this year, Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good hit the number one spot in the Nielsen BookScan charts for children’s books in its second week on sale. The series is now nearing 200,000 copies in print, according to the publisher. The sequel Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Taking the Blame, published in August, is shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards in the children’s fiction category.

Stowell said: “It’s brilliant news that Loki will be unleashed on so many countries in the coming years and I’m thrilled to be creating more Loki: A Bad God’s Guide books with Walker. The whole Walker team have been a dream to work with and I can’t wait to cause more chaos together. Apologies in advance.”

Pratt added: “It’s incredibly rewarding to see Louie’s creative integrity and imagination – and Walker’s absolute conviction in this – reflected in the way young readers have wholeheartedly embraced her fresh, wry and witty take on Norse god Loki.”