Nicolas Cheetham paid a “good five-figure sum” for a two novels by award-winning UK writer Chris Beckett, for the Corvus imprint of Grove Atlantic. The deal was handled by agent John Jarrold.
The first book in the deal is Beckett’s first novel, The Holy Machine, which was first published by Wildisde Press, and reprinted earlier this year by Cosmos in the US. Corvus bought world rights excluding the US, and plans to publish the book in 2010.
The second novel in the deal, as yet untitled, is “being discussed by Beckett and Cheetham.” Corvus bought world rights for this one.
Beckett recently won the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize for his SF collection The Turing Test, published by small British publisher Elastic Press. The three-year old, £5,000 prize for a single-author short story collection, is sponsored by Edge Hill University.
Jarrold said “I’m so delighted for Chris. He’s one of the most thoughtful writers involved in SF. He invents wonderful concepts, but it’s all about the characters, the people. After winning a major literary prize earlier this year—the judges said they didn’t know they liked SF until they read his stories—this is a great move forwards. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.”
Cheetham said “With all the imagination, zest, and style of Chris’s award-winning short stories, The Holy Machine is a must-read first novel. Chris proves that literary fiction and science fiction can be one and same.”
Related articles previously published on SFScope:
PS Publishing buys three books, fiction for Postscripts, and a Lovecraftian anthology (9 February 2009)