UK FICTION MARKET
Under the moonflower light
Moonflower Books is a new publisher of commercial fiction with a twist.
‘We look for books that don’t fit neatly in any publishing box,’ said Moonsflower’s publisher, bestselling author CJ Daugherty. ‘Books that are commercial, but just slightly outside of mainstream trends’
CJ and her team started Moonflower during lockdown in 2020. ‘I’m an author myself, having traditionally published seven young adult novels before moving into adult fiction,’ said CJ. ‘When I decided to go back and write another young adult thriller I found the market for YA had changed in the UK in the years I’d been out of it. Even though my first series, Night School, had been very successful, my agent couldn’t find a home for Number
10, a political thriller set in Number 10 Downing Street. Publishing slots for YA were few and far between in the UK. And yet the book had sold for translation in six languages. I had a following already, and publishers around the world for the series, so my agent and I decided I would have to publish it myself. But how? I could have popped it up on Amazon and called it a day, but I didn’t want to do that. I’m an ex-editor myself, and I have a strong network of connections inside the industry. My husband is a filmmaker with strong connections in the film and TV industry, as well, so we knew we could create an multilayered business, if we worked together. So we created Moonflower, with the purpose of using it to publish my YA and my backlist books. But within months, we’d received a couple of submissions from authors that we loved. That was when we decided to create a full imprint – not just for my work, but for other books we both loved. We decided to focus on books that, for whatever reason, don’t fit on the lists of major publishers, but that still deserve to be discovered.’
Moonflower has been shaped by CJ’s own experience as an author. ‘Writers are always told to write the book they love,’ she said. ‘But the truth is, if the book you love doesn’t fit easily into a particular box, you won’t sell it to a major publisher. So what publishers really mean is write the book you love as long as it follows modern trends and is very like another book that recently sold at least 100,000 copies. So what writers should do depends on what writers want. If you really want a publishing contract with a major publisher, write something similar to a very successful book and agents and major publishers may well get into a bidding war for it. But I find that a bit soul destroying. The other way is just to write the book you actually do love. Put your heart and soul into it. Rewrite it from the start at least five times. Get a friend to read and it and consider seriously what they think the weaknesses are. Then rewrite it again. Then and only then, send it to an agent. Or to me. Books that come from the heart are genuinely the very best books. But do bear in mind that almost every author I know – including me – has at least one book in a drawer somewhere that nobody wanted. It happens. The only thing to do then is to put your head down, find a new story, and start again. It’s not easy, but there is joy to be found in the pages you create.’ For now Moonflower is publishing only two books per year. ‘We have a small staff, and we want to be able to give every book we publish a PR campaign (Midas provides our PR) and a marketing spend. In order to do that, we need to stay small and focused. If in five years we’re publishing at least two books a year, giving every book a solid PR push, and still choosing the books we love, I’ll consider Moonflower a success.’
Moonflower is interested in fresh, original commercial work across several fiction genres.
‘We’re very interested in YA crime and thrillers, as well as books featuring twenty-something main characters, but not erotica,’ said CJ. ‘For adult books, we love crime novels – not so much dark psychological thrillers or police procedurals, but more of the detective stories genre. We’d love someone to write a modern version of The Thin Man
– with a crime-solving detective couple. Or a dark LA Confidential-style noir. We’re open to women’s fiction, but prefer it to be funny. And most horror leaves me cold but I do love a good ghost story. Basically, we’re looking for things that are independent in spirit. Things that wouldn’t, perhaps, sit well on a major publisher’s list, but that still will find a commercial audience.
The key is that stories should be character driven. ‘We are looking for character-driven books with a real edge. Blue Running – which comes out in December – is a perfect example of that. It’s a book with a fourteen-yearold main character, primarily written for adult readers. The content is dark, and the issues touched on include sexual assault, gun ownership, feminism, and extreme politics. So it’s hard for mainstream publishers to put into an appropriate box. But all it’s an incredibly well-written book. It was the best book I read in 2020. The characters leaped off the page. I still think about that book all the time.’
Moonflower Books accepts submissions directly from authors, and from agents. Send the first three chapters, a synopsis and a covering letters. It publishes in various formats. Authors are paid a small advance and royalties.
Website: moonflowerbooks.co.uk