Midnight Riot Breaks Out at Zeno Towers…

… as ARCs of Ben Aaronovitch’s novel arrive!

MIDNIGHT RIOT will be published by Del Rey in the US and in the UK by Gollancz under the title RIVERS OF LONDON. Both releases are scheduled for  late January 2011 and will be followed shortly thereafter by Book Two, MOON OVER SOHO.

Rivers of London Sells to Germany…

We’re delighted to announce the sale of the first two books in Ben Aaronovitch‘s RIVERS OF LONDON series to DTV Deutscher Taschenuch Verlag in a deal brokered in association with our German language agents at Paul & Peter Fritz.

The deal includes MOON OVER SOHO which Ben has just delivered to us here at Zeno towers and also to his editors, Betsy Mitchell over at Del Rey and Jo Fletcher at Gollancz. Both publishers are looking to publish book one early next year and so we hope to have some cover art to show you soon!

Gollancz Buys Ben Aaronovitch’s RIVERS OF LONDON series…

Having announced only recently the exciting news that Ben Aaronovitch‘s RIVERS OF LONDON series is to be published in the US by Del Rey, we’re equally delighted to now  announce that Jo Fletcher at Gollancz has acquired world rights (excluding USA/Canada, France and Germany) for the series and will be matching release dates with Del Rey, with the first two books due to be published in Spring 2011.

I’m delighted to have acquired Ben’s RIVERS OF LONDON series: CSI London meets The Sweeney – Urban Fantasy style!‘ says Jo Fletcher. ‘I love this series of fast-moving, plot-driven urban fantasy adventures, and the combination of rookie beat copper-turned-apprentice-wizard Peter Grant and his boss, the debonair Inspector Nightingale, aka the last wizard in England, is gripping stuff. The books are real page-turners, and enormous fun – I shall never look on the River Lea quite the same way again. Ben’s already got a devoted audience with his Doctor Who episodes; I am quite sure he’ll be winning a whole new audience with this series.

For more on Ben Aaronovitch, see this previous posting and visit his author page on the Zeno Web Site.

NEW CLIENT – Ben Aaronovitch

We’re a little late in announcing this (so much to do, so little time!) but are delighted to be doing so nonetheless.

Zeno has taken on Ben Aaronovitch as a client and we’ve already got some excitement going on for his novel RIVERS OF LONDON, the first book in a quite superb fantasy crime series that I’ve been pitching as “NEVERWHERE meets  THE SWEENEY“.

John Berlyne says “Ben’s arrival proves that the system works  and should give hope to all unagented writers out there. His book came in during the last round of submissions and the process followed the proscribed protocols in textbook fashion. I received an enquiry letter which intrigued me, asked for an elevator pitch which excited me, then received an excerpt which impressed me and finally a manuscript which floored me. It’s exactly the scenario that both parties – writer and agent – long for.

RIVERS OF LONDON is one of the most exciting and commercial prospects I’ve seen in a good while and ticks every box. John Parker and myself are enjoying working with Ben enormously and can’t wait to get this series out into the world