Cornerstones: All treats, no tricks this Halloween!
A spooky spectacular: new editors, success stories, and updates from Cornerstones HQ
Dear authors,
This Halloween, we’re thrilled to be sharing some recent Cornerstones success stories. As we gear up for our 25th birthday (!) and the eve of NaNoWriMo, we can’t wait to share these and more with you.
👻 Editor Spotlight
The wonderful Karen Ball, who worked as Publisher at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Head of Editorial at Working Partners, has joined our editor roll as an Industry editor. Karen is a former Bookseller Rising Star, she commissioned the bestselling children’s series Beast Quest, and her own writing credits include a debut adult novel (Viking, PRH, set to come out in 2024) and 25 children’s books. Karen loves working with writers in an in-depth way, specialising in mentoring hours, so do get in touch with us if you’d like to book in for some hours with her to work on your novel!
🎃 Success Stories
Can’t get enough of books in this cosy reading weather? Here are some Cornerstones alum books that are coming out soon!
…and one very special deal, which proves that not everything that comes out of the shadows is scary!
Helen passed author Gay Marris through to agent Eugenie Furniss at 42 back in 2018. At Frankfurt Book Fair, Bedford Square Publishers snapped up Marris’ cosy crime tale A Curtain-Twitcher’s Book of Murder.
Set in London in 1968, the novel follows the lives of the inhabitants of a suburban London street. But this is no ordinary street, because Atbara Avenue is a street where, all too often, murder feels like the solution…
Gay kindly reached out to us with her success story, saying, Cornerstones' wealth of experience was invaluable and my trust in their guidance has paid off. Helen quickly matched me with a top agent and I’m now working on book two. Thank you Cornerstones!
You can pick up The Curtain-Twitcher’s Book of Murder from 20 June 2024.
🕯️ That’s all from us! The next month holds lots of excitement here at Cornerstones HQ – Kyrie will be doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and you can follow how she’s getting on on our Twitter page, and we’ll be celebrating Cornerstones’ 25th anniversary!
Ever wondered how Cornerstones came to be? Have a read of Helen’s blog post when Cornerstones turned 21 – here’s a sneak peek.
Twenty-one years ago, on a rainy November evening, I was in Penguin editorial looking at piles of unsolicited manuscripts. On my desk was a submission from an author that hinted with real promise but wasn’t there yet. I scribbled a note: ‘Keep going – have you thought of starting at chapter two? Chapter one is mainly backstory’. Moving on to the next submission I scribbled another note. And so on. We weren’t supposed to write notes – we were supposed to reject automatically as individual feedback was (and still is) just not feasible; editorial departments are so busy publishing their own authors that they don’t have the time or the resources to write bespoke turn-downs for manuscripts that don’t come via an agent.
Do send us your nail-biting news, terrifying tales, and spooky stories… we’re always here if you need us!
Very best,
The Cornerstones Team