First novels

Freakslaw is your debut novel - how have you found the publishing process so far?  Read more

'My theatre background has probably helped me be a braver writer and maybe more rigorous, too: the theatre can sustain bold and abstract ideas, but not slow or sloppy storytelling'

Theatre producer Ellie Keel's debut novel, dark academia thriller The Four was published on 11 April by HQ.

When Wyl Menmuir sat down to write his first book, he was well aware it was something many aspire to but few achieve. "I knew I needed help to avoid it being just a stack of paper that sat in my bedside drawer. I know too many people who have written half a novel," he says.  Read more

After reading just two pages of Emma Cline's luminous novel The Girls - about the young women flocking around a Manson-like cult figure - Random House editor Kate Medina shut her door. "I said, ‘I'm not doing anything else. I'm not talking to anybody. I'm just reading this book,'" she recalls. And when she finished, Medina offered Cline a three-book, reported $2 million deal.  Read more