Mushens Entertainment’s 2023 Round-up
We’ve had a brilliant year at Mushens Entertainment, with 58 books published, more than 30 UK & US deals, 199 international deals, 2 new team members, and 2 babies born!
Bestsellers and Prize Winners
In 2023, we had 14 bestselling UK titles across the ME Agency and 4 No.1 bestselling titles (Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, The Last Devil to Die and The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, and Atalanta by Jennifer Saint)!
And we also had some of our authors win prestigious prizes – huge congratulations to our authors on their success!
The Diverse Book Awards, One for Sorrow, Two for Joy by Marie-Claire Amuah
Somerset Maugham Award with the Society of Authors, To Fill A Yellow House by Sussie Anie
Silver Signal Awards, Roanoke Falls by Laura Purcell
Foreign Rights
We made 199 foreign rights deals in 2023, which equals 1 deal every 1.8 days!
And now over to the team. What is your career highlight from 2023 and what are you looking forward to in 2024?
Juliet
2023 was a tumultuous year as I juggled a newborn baby and running a business - I’m mostly delighted that I made it through in one piece! Thanks to my fabulous authors and team it still managed to be a year of deals, bestsellers, great reviews, and prize winners! I just had a lot less sleep during it.
In 2024, I’m looking forward to attending London Book Fair in person having missed it last year because I just had my baby!
Rachel
I had a great year, getting the chance to work with Juliet’s wonderful clients during her maternity leave, doing my biggest deal to date and my first film deal!
Publishers usually acquire books two years in advance, so I’m really excited to finally see some of my first authors’ books publish and make their way into the world! I’m also going to be involved in judging two writing competitions, which I’m really looking forward to as it is such a great way to find talented debut authors!
Kiya
I started building my own list this year, so signing my first client was definitely a special moment. I also loved judging the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize – there was so much talent on display, and I’m so proud of the collection we ended up with.
I’m very excited to go out on submission with some very exciting projects next year. I’ve been working at Mushens Entertainment since 2021 (technically 2020, if you count my internship!) and every year is an absolute whirlwind of growth and excitement, so I can’t wait to see what 2024 holds in store, for both our team and our authors.
Alba
In 2023, I did the biggest deal in my career and I also attended Harrogate and FantasyCon for the first time, all of which were huge highlights for me!
I’m most looking forward to all the new books coming out in 2024 and our weekly submission meetings, where we discuss every submission as a team.
Catriona
In 2023, I attended my first Frankfurt Book Fair which has definitely been a career highlight for me! While I’ve been to London twice, Frankfurt overall felt like a bigger event and working in foreign rights, it was great to meet people who are just as excited about books in translation as you are.
In 2024, I’m looking forward to more book fair madness and securing new foreign rights deals for the agency. We’ve had lots of exciting signings recently and I can’t wait to see how those manifest in our international submissions.
Emma
My 2023 highlight was starting at Mushens Entertainment and being so thoroughly welcomed into the team. My mini-highlight of the year has been trying every single tea in the ME kitchen.
I’m most looking forward to the book launches of the many wonderful ME books in 2024, though my colleagues may have to deter me from dressing up in the correct historical period for some of the historical fiction launches!
Fun trips!
As always, the ME team were out and about attending events around the country in 2023 and here are a few of the highlights.
Kiya judged the Brick Lane 2023 Short Story Prize, which was supported by Mushens Entertainment, and across the year, she had a wonderful time selecting the longlist, shortlist, and finally, the three winners in November.
In July, the team travelled again to the beautiful town of Harrogate to attend Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which was attended by many ME authors. A few highlights were Kate Gray’s brunch event for The Honeymoon, Richard Osman receiving a Nielsen Platinum Bestseller Award for selling more than one million copies of The Bullet That Missed, and Claire Douglas appearing on the ‘When Sally Killed Harry’ panel, which explored the reasons why domestic noir books showing the darker sides of love and friendship are so popular with readers.
As we are creatures of habit, the team attended FantasyCon again in 2023. We were there to support our authors Saara El-Arifi, Jen Williams, and Stephen Aryan as they sat on panels, gave readings, signed books, and met their readers. Jen even had her launch party for Talonsister at the convention! The ME participation was completed by Alba being a guest on the ‘Connecting with the Reader Market’ panel, where she thoroughly enjoyed discussing her love of the fantasy genre.
In 2023, we held our biggest Summer party ever at the glamourous Jack Solomons Club in Soho and we celebrated the achievements of the past year in style. There was a speakeasy-style venue, a photobooth, and themed cocktails. Who could ask for anything more?
Alba and Emma joined the agency!
We had two very welcome additions to our busy team in 2023! In July, Alba moved from Sheil Land to cover Liza’s maternity leave as Foreign Rights Manager and in October, Emma moved from theatre company, Complicité, to take the role of Assistant to Juliet Mushens.
Below are the wonderful books that we’ve published in 2023. Thank you so much to all of our authors, publishers and partners who have made this possible!
Wishing you a wonderful festive season and a Happy New Year, with love from the ME team! x
