The Essex Serpent

Sarah Perry’s second novel, The Essex Serpent, could easily have gone the way of her first, After Me Comes the Flood— reviewed well, with modest success commercially. But instead The Essex Serpent emerged from the dark to become one of the smash hits of 2016.

Its jacket—the concept of which was developed from proof form through to finished product and special editions—was the first thing that caught the judges’ attention. But it was Perry’s story—an exploration of myth, superstition and belief, set in 1890s Essex—that excited the panel, and the work of the publisher that impressed the judges.

A modest sales target of 5,000 copies in hardback was set by Serpent’s Tail: in that format alone The Essex Serpent sold 104,078 copies through Nielsen BookScan in 2016. Serpent’s Tail ran a focused publicity and marketing campaign, aimed at generating reviews and word-of-mouth excitement through retailers, bloggers and on social media.

Judges said the care Serpent’s Tail had taken on the book shone through, resulting in The Essex Serpent being named Waterstones Book of the Year 2016 (a special edition, with a blue cover, was produced for the retailer), winning the Spoon’s Carpet Novel Award and the Books Are My Bag Beautiful Book Award, and getting shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award.

Alice O’Keeffe, books editor at The Bookseller, said: “From the editor’s acquisition to selling over 100,000 copies in hardback, The Essex Serpent has been an absolute masterclass in how to publish exceptional fiction exceptionally well. Hannah Westland, Sarah Perry’s editor, championed her author from the beginning. The jacket is not a knock-off genre historical jacket but a stunningly beautiful work of art unlike anything else on the shelves. The publicity campaign was outstanding, achieving press coverage across the board and also generating huge word-of-mouth among booksellers and readers.”