RANDOM HOUSE’S CENTURY ACQUIRES NEW SELF-PUBLISHED TITLE

RANDOM HOUSE’S CENTURY ACQUIRES NEW
SELF-PUBLISHED PHENOMENON HUGH HOWEY WITH FILMS RIGHTS SNAPPED UP BY
RIDLEY SCOTT AND STEVE ZAILLIAN FOR 20th CENTURY FOX

 

After
a fierce bidding war reminiscent of Fifty Shades of Grey, 20th Century
Fox has just acquired the film rights. Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott
Free are partnering on the deal with Film Rites’ Steve Zaillian and
Garrett Basch. Kassie Evashevski at United Talent Agency brokered the
deal on behalf of Kristin Nelson at NLA.

In the spirit of The Hunger Games, Wool is a high-concept novel set
in a stark future; the air outside is no longer breathable, so the last
community on Earth lives underground in an enormous silo. Survival is
everything, and some will do anything to ensure it. The upcoming Shift
Trilogy is a prequel to the story of Wool.

After a hotly contested 5-way auction, Jack Fogg, Editorial Director
at Century has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Wool and The Shift
Trilogy by Hugh Howey from Jenny Meyer at Jenny Meyer Literary Agency
on behalf of Kristin Nelson, president of The Nelson Literary Agency
(NLA).

Much like EL James’s Fifty Shades trilogy, Wool has become a
word-of-mouth sensation since the author self-published on Amazon.com,
garnering over 600 five-star reviews and selling over 140,000 copies
through e-book in just under six months. Century is the author’s only
English-language publisher as the author will continue to self-publish
in the US. Century will publish in hardback in January 2013 with an
Arrow paperback in August. Ebook will be available immediately.

Foreign rights deals have also been struck in Spain, Brazil, Taiwan,
Poland and China and offers are pending in Germany and other
territories.


Hugh Howey says ‘I couldn’t be more thrilled and honoured to find a
home with Century and Random House. And I hope I spelled honoured
right.’

Jack Fogg says, ‘Wool drew me in from the first page. It’s such an
intricately realised world – both incredibly visceral and visual – but
for me, and for the many fans here at Random House, what really
captivated was the book’s compassion and care for its characters. Wool
is many things, but at its core it is a novel about relationships and
therein lays its brilliance.’

Kristin Nelson says, ‘We did have conversations with US publishers
and although we received several six-figure offers, we decided that the
partnership didn’t make sense yet given the current electronic royalty
rate being offered. We certainly have not closed the door to interested
US parties.’

Hugh Howey spent eight years living on boats and working as a yacht
captain for the rich and famous. It wasn’t until the love of his life
carried him away from these vagabond ways that he began to pursue
literary adventures, rather than literal ones. Hugh also wrote and
self-published his first young adult novel, Molly Fyde and the Parsona
Rescue.