NEW YORK, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- HarperCollins Publishers
announced they will publish a new three-book series with
Melissa Marr, author of the
New York Times bestselling
Wicked Lovely series. Marr's new trilogy revolves around a
girl assassin, a demon with a soul, and a world where myth and
science meet. The first book is tentatively scheduled for a
fall 2013 release. World Rights were acquired from Marr's
agent, Merrilee Heifetz of Writer's
House, by Anne Hoppe, the editor of
the Wicked Lovely series.
Melissa Marr burst onto the Young Adult literature scene in June
2007. Her debut novel, WICKED LOVELY, instantly became a
New York Times bestseller, as
well as a Los Angeles Times
bestseller, and Marr was selected as a Publishers Weekly
Flying Starts author. WICKED LOVELY also won the Romance
Writers of America RITA award for Young Adult books and was named a
finalist for Borders Original Voices award. Each of her
subsequent novels has been a New York
Times bestseller, and the Wicked Lovely series concludes
in February 2011 with DARKEST MERCY,
the fifth and final installment.
Marr has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach her fans in
new ways and to recruit new readers. This spring, Harper
published "Stopping Time," a digital-born short story set in the
world of Wicked Lovely, in two parts. Each half of the story
was downloaded more than 45,000 times. Additionally, a
limited-time free e-book of Wicked Lovely was downloaded more than
60,000 times. All three digital products sat at the top of
Amazon's Kindle Bestseller list for several weeks.
"It's hard to believe that Melissa
Marr made her publishing debut just three short years ago,"
says Susan Katz, President and
Publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books. "We've been
consistently impressed by the tidal wave of support for her books
and the innovative ways Melissa has engaged and broadened her
readership, capitalizing upon her online savvy and traditional
networking efforts."
Offline, Marr conceived of an author-initiated, grassroots group
book tour called "Smart Chicks Kick It" which will commence in
September 2010. The tour, which
involves nineteen authors from a wide array of publishers, will
stop in twelve cities and includes bestselling YA writers such as
Kelley Armstrong, Cassandra Clare, Alyson Noel, and Holly
Black. In April 2011, Marr will
spearhead programming for the Young Adult track at the RT
Booklovers Convention in Los
Angeles, working with many of the biggest names in YA
literature.
Fans of Wicked Lovely can also expect a forthcoming Wicked
Lovely movie. In September 2009,
Universal Pictures acquired screen rights to the Wicked Lovely
series from Marr's agent, Merrilee
Heifetz, with Sally Wilcox of
CAA. The studio bought the books to be produced by
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Picture
Show Productions and hired Caroline Thompson ("Edward
Scissorhands") to write the screenplay.
ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS:
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in
the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A;
ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New
York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world
including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins
Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins
Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New
Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a
broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial
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romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200
years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's
foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel
Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery
Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of
innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins is the
first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital
warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer
demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can
visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at
http://www.harpercollins.com.
Publicity Contact: Melissa Bruno,
212 207 7911
SOURCE HarperCollins