HarperVoyager signs debut trilogy after fighting off five other publishers in a hotly contested auction.

01.07.13 | Joshua Farrington - The Bookseller

HarperVoyager has signed a deal for a debut trilogy, after fighting off five other publishers in a hotly contested auction.

Emma Coode, deputy publishing director at HarperVoyager, signed UK and Commonwealth rights to Francesca Haig's trilogy for a "significant" six-figure sum, in a deal with Juliet Mushens at The Agency Group.
Film rights have also been signed, with DreamWorks securing them in a pre-emptive deal through Rich Green at Resolution on behalf of Mushens at The Agency Group.

The first book in the trilogy, The Fire Sermon, was selected by Mushens from the slush pile. It has also sold in Turkey, and is currently in auction in Spain.
The Fire Sermon is set in a world without technology, 400 years in the future after a nuclear apocalypse. All humans now have a twin, with one, the Alpha, being physically perfect, and the other, the Omega, having a mutation. A state of division exists between the two, with rebellious Omegas forced to live on blighted land, but although they live apart, when one dies, the other dies too. The book follows Cass, an Omega with an invisible defect, the ability to see the future, and sees what happens when her power is discovered and her twin Zach casts her out.

Coode said: "I was completely  hooked by the concept and her narrative skill was evident from the first few pages. The Fire Sermon is a wonderful adventure layered with high drama and provocative world building, with a strong, appealing heroine at its heart."

Haig is a senior lecturer at the University of Chester, where she is programme leader in creative writing.
Voyager plans to publish the book in hardback in spring 2015.