The John Jarrold Literary Agency reports:  “Jon Mitchell, Senior Rights Manager at Macmillan, has sold Italian rights to Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton to Gargoyle, who recently acquired rights to publish Joe Abercrombie and others.

Nights of Villjamur was first published by Macmillan/Tor UK in 2009 and has been followed by three other successful books in the Legends of the Red Sun series. The first of a new series, Drakenfeld, will debut in 2013.”

Matt and Ray Marshall of Blind Monkey Pictures, the horror offshoot of UK production company Festival Film and TV, have optioned Adam Nevill’s horror novel Apartment 16, which was published in the UK in 2010 by Pan Macmillan.

The novel is a contemporary horror tale set in an imposing block of Victorian apartments in London.  Number 16 has been empty for decades. No-one goes in and no-one comes out – until the young night porter hears a noise coming from inside the apartment and opens the door. From that moment, nothing will ever be the same again….

The deal was brokered by the Gotham Group in Los Angeles, representing the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

Gollancz has acquired a three-book fantasy series by Stephen Hunt.  The first novel is titled In Dark Service, while the trilogy is called The Far-Called.  The first volume will be published in 2013.

Stephen is the author of six fantasy novels published by HarperCollins Voyager in the UK and Tor in the US, as well as in various translation editions, and runs the SF Crowsnest news and reviews site.

Here is Stephen’s introduction to the world on which this series takes place:

“Plenas has two unique characteristics worth noting, the first – and most significant of which – is that it’s a world on a mind-boggling scale where peddler caravans can take a thousand years to complete a limited circuit of their trade territory, a land where the guild of radio signallers can relay messages between their stations for multiple lifetimes and still never make a clean circumnavigation of the globe.

It is a world where, should a youngster be gripped by wanderlust, they can simply head off and travel with merchant nomads for their entire lifetime, taking in thousands of exotic nations, strange races and mysterious wonders, while still only travelling across a minute fraction of the globe.

The second distinctive facet of Plenas is that the land has no mineral resources worth mining except around the stratovolcanoes dotted across the world, massive shield volcanoes that stand about three times the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level. These vomit out great gobs of ore-bearing rocks into the air for harvesting by sky mines, and this wealth is always jealously hoarded by the empires that rise to pre-eminence around the stratovolcanoes, growing rich with their monopoly over metals, crystals and coals.

Reliance on sustainable resources means that most societies, races and nations on Plenas are throttled somewhere between a Roman and Victorian level of progress, with only the great empires of the stratovolcanoes reaching a higher level of development.”

The deal for World Rights was brokered by the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

John Jarrold is proud to announce that the John Jarrold Literary Agency now represents all international translation rights from BFS President and Grand Master of British horror fiction, Ramsey Campbell.  The agency already represented UK and Commonwealth rights.

“I and my sub-agents will be talking to publishers around the world about Ramsey,” said John Jarrold.  “I have read his work since the sixties, and known him personally since the eighties as a fan, publisher and agent.  I am delighted to make this announcement.”

Kay McCauley continues to represent Ramsey in the US.

Author Gareth L. Powell has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency. Gareth is the author of the novels The Recollection and Silversands, and the short story collection The Last Reef, which was described by Morpheus Tales as “One of the finest collections of SF short stories I have had the privilege of reading” .

Gareth is currently working on a new novel for Solaris Books, entitled Ack-Ack Macaque, inspired by his short story of the same name, which won Interzone magazine’s Readers’ Poll for best short story of 2007.

As well as appearing regularly in Interzone and other magazines, Gareth’s work has also featured in a number of recent anthologies, including Future Bristol, Shine, Conflicts, Further Conflicts, StarShipSofa Stories Volume 3 and Dark Spires.

Gareth is a popular guest at conventions and other literary and genre events, and will be one of the Guests of Honour at BristolCon in October 2012.

Photo (c) Keith Ramsey, The Weston Mercury

The John Jarrold Literary Agency reports: “Bella Pagan, Senior Commissioning Editor at Tor UK, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has acquired world rights to the first two volumes of a fantasy series by Mark Charan Newton.

The first book in a series provisionally titled Drakenfeld introduces the eponymous hero, an investigator. The series is set in a fantasy world, but will appeal to fans of historical mysteries. In this opening volume, Lucan Drakenfeld is called home after the death of his father – but is immediately thrown into the investigation of a royal death. He also finds that his father’s demise is not as clear-cut as it at first appears…

Tor UK have previously successfully published three fantasy novels by Mark in the Legends of the Red Sun series since 2009, with a fourth to appear in the summer of 2012.  They have been strongly acclaimed by reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first book in the new series will be published in 2014.”

The John Jarrold Literary Agency has announced that Pippa Wright, Rights Manager at Orion, has sold Japanese rights to highly-praised SF debut The Quantum Thief by Finnish science fiction novelist resident in Scotland, Hannu Rajaniemi, to Hayakawa via sub-agent Miko Yamanouchi from Japan Uni.

World rights in The Quantum Thief, plus two further books, were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz  from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter.  Rights have also been sold in the USA, Germany, Spain, Turkey and Finland.

Hayakawa also recently acquired Japanese rights to Hannu’s highly-praised story His Master’s Voice for their SF Magazine.

The John Jarrold Literary Acency have announced that a film option deal has been negotiated for Adam Nevill‘s horror novel The Ritual:

“Stillking Films have optioned Adam Nevill’s horror novel The Ritual.  Published in the UK in 2011 by Macmillan UK, the book will be published in the US by St Martin’s Press in 2012.

The novel is a contemporary horror tale that follows four men hiking in the northern European forests and the hellish things they discover there…

The deal was brokered by the Gotham Group in Los Angeles, representing the John Jarrold Literary Agency.  Stillking Films have produced many major films including Casino Royale, The Illusionist, From Hell and The Bourne Identity.”