Wildfire wins heated four-way auction for two books by M L Rio

Wildfire has won a heated four-way auction for two books by M L Rio. 

Fiction publisher Jack Butler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, and exclusive Europe rights to Graveyard Shift and Hot Wax from Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates on behalf of Arielle Datz at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. North American rights to Graveyard Shift were acquired by Flatiron, and Hot Wax was acquired by Tim O’Connell at Simon & Schuster in a pre-empt. 

Rio’s debut novel If We Were Villains (Titan) was a major BookTok favourite, selling over half a million copies worldwide and amassing foreign rights sales in 19 territories, according to the publisher. 

Graveyard Shift is billed as “a modern Gothic” which follows a group of five misfit night-shift workers who meet every night in their college’s ancient cemetery. “One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard they stumble on an open, freshly dug grave. But who dug it, and for whom? Told over the course of one night, the five piece together the macabre mystery behind the grave and its digger – and discover they may be closer to the truth than they thought.” It will be published on 24th September 2024 in hardback, e-book and audio. 

Hot Wax, follows 10-year-old Suzanne on tour with her father and his riotous band in the summer of 1989. “Featuring the complex group dynamics and vivid backstage enclaves that defined her bestselling debut, this immersive tale tells the story of Suzanne’s twisted, torturous journey through the raucous world of rock stars and road warriors on her way to find herself” the publisher said. It will be published in summer 2025 in hardback, trade paperback, e-book and audio.