Zaffre makes 24-hour pre-empt on début from Rare Birds bookshop owner Rachel Wood

Zaffre has made a 24-hour pre-empt for the “laugh-out-loud” rom-com Annie Knows Everything by Rachel Wood, owner of Rare Birds bookshop in Edinburgh. 

Publishing director Melissa Cox acquired UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Suzannah Ball at WME. The book was simultaneously pre-empted in the US by Penguin Random House and in Germany by Bastei Lübbe. 

The novel revolves around Annie, who, after being unceremoniously let go from her job, is willing to do anything to stay in New York, including taking another position for which she is wildly underqualified. “The only problem? Her new boss, Connor, knows that Annie is only pretending to know what’s she doing. To make matters worse, her sister is going through a nightmare re-engagement, there are some seriously weird vibes in her friendship group, her workplace has a newfound tendency to fire its employees...”

Wood said: “When I first started writing Annie Knows Everything, my only mission was to make my friends laugh. I wanted to poke fun at how ridiculously seriously the tech industry takes itself and tell a story about two people who spend their days flirting when they’re meant to be working.”

Cox added: “Twenty-four hour pre-empts sound exciting, but there is nothing like the realisation as you read a submission that this is a book you need to publish... and the fear that another editor will beat you to it.  

“Reading Annie Knows Everything I realised we were in the presence of a romantic-comedy writer of rare talent.” 

Wood is a Canadian writer originally from Toronto. After graduating with a master’s in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh, she began her career as a copywriter before founding the book subscription service Rare Birds Book Club in 2017, which became a physical shop in Edinburgh four years later.