What a year 2019 has been for Avon. To celebrate we thought we would share 19 of our many memories to commemorate 2019.
- Sleep by C.L. Taylor has had a stellar year! Not only was it the author’s first-ever Richard & Judy Book Club Pick, but it also reached #4 in the Sunday Times bestseller chart. C.L. Taylor appeared on the Sara Cox Show on ITV and did her first ever bookshop tour. It was a fantastic campaign.
- Another publishing highlight was Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams. The author’s debut novel reached No. 1 in the Apple audiobook chart, narrated by Carrie Hope Fletcher. There were limited-edition pink-sprayed edges in Waterstones. We also held the book launch at Twitter HQ and won Best Debut Marketing Campaign at the Book Marketing Society.
- The German Midwife, published as A Woman of War in the UK by Mandy Robotham hit #1 on the Globe and Mail bestseller chart in Canada. It was also voted HarperCollins Canada fan favourite of the summer. The author also appeared at the Cheltenham Literary Festival as a speaker in 2019.
- In October we reached a landmark feat in the bestselling Ben Hopes series when we published the 20th book House of War by Scott Mariani.
- Many of our books have hit the Kindle Top 100 in UK, Australia, Canada and the US this year and we couldn’t have been more thrilled.
- The Forgotten Village by Lorna Cook hit 1,000 Amazon reviews this November after reaching #1 in the Kindle Chart, and stayed in the Top 100 for four months! Also, the author won the Joan Hessayon award with the Romantic Novelist’s Association.
- We had our first Avon all-female crime panel at Woking Literary Festival with authors C.L. Taylor, Katerina Diamond, Amanda Robson and Mel Sherratt.
- Both of Phillipa Ashley’s books in the bestselling Perfect Cornish series have reached the Top 20 in the Kindle Chart.
- The Avon team channelled their inner Vikings and went axe-throwing in the summer with Katie Loughnane and Hannah Todd becoming joint winners, they are now Avon’s designated team leaders for any zombie apocalypses!
- We welcomed two honorary members to the Avon team this year with two Avon babies being born – congratulations Rachel and Helen!
- We signed many incredible authors for 2020, including some returning faces like Pam Weaver and Gill Paul! Keep an eye out also for the debut novels of Hannah Sunderland, Hayley Doyle, Nicola Gill and Nell Pattison coming in 2020.
- Author Sue Moorcroft went on a visit to the printers to see her latest book Let it Snow printed from start to finish.
- We released the debut novel Through the Wall by Caroline Corcoran. Our Head of PR, Sabah Khan did an amazing job securing a lot of publicity for the campaign, and the book reached the Top 50 Kindle Chart in its first weeks of release.
- Magpie, House of War, A Friend Called Alfie, Sleep, Through the Wall, Let it Snow, A Family’s Heartbreak and several other novels hit the Top 20 in the Sunday Times.
- Author Nicola Gill went to the audiobook studios to listen and watch as her debut novel The Neighbours was recorded by actress Katy Federman, and Helen Fields met narrator of the DI Luc Callanach series, Robin Laing, and recorded an exclusive Q&A with him.
- Many of the team and authors from 2019 attended the HarperCollins Summer Party at the Victoria and Albert Museum and talked the night away. It was a fabulous evening and we can’t wait to see more of our authors there next year.
- A Family’s Heartbreak by Kitty Neale reached #3 in the Sunday Times bestsellers chart.
- Claire Allan’s debut novel Her Name Was Rose – which was published in 2017 – reached #5 in the Top 100 Kindle Chart and has remained there for two weeks!
- Helen Huthwaite, our beloved Publishing Director, hit her ten year anniversary working at Avon!
We hope you enjoyed 2019 as much as we did. But it’s time to bring on 2020.
