Author Ken Follett will publish his next, as-yet-untitled book with Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK in 2025. Grand Central Publishing president and publisher Ben Sevier acquired U.S. and Canada rights, and Quercus managing director Jon Butler acquired U.K. and Commonwealth rights, from the Follett Office, which represents Follett’s business interests. In addition to English, rights to date have been sold in Danish, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
“This is the beginning of an exciting new phase for me: new publisher, new editors, new sales force,” Follett said in a statement. “I’m already published in paperback in French by Le Livre de Poche, an Hachette company that has impressed me with its dynamism and creativity. I’m looking forward eagerly to working with Hachette teams in New York and London.”
The forthcoming book, Sevier said, “has all the scope and ambition to make it one of the most enduring works of fiction of our time.” Butler added: “If I could have dreamed up the perfect setting, story and title for a new Ken Follett, this would be it.”
Follett was previously published by Penguin in the U.S., for 45 years, and Pan Macmillan in the U.K., for 35 years. His 37 books, Hachette noted in a release, have sold more than 192 million copies combined in over 80 countries and in 40 languages. Those include the 1978 espionage thriller Eye of the Needle, which won the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel, and 1989’s bestselling epic The Pillars of the Earth.
“As a longtime fan, I’m excited on both a personal and professional level that Ken Follett has decided to publish with Hachette in the US and UK,” David Shelley, CEO of HBG and HUK, said in a statement. “He’s one of the great storytellers and his new book will thrill his many millions of fans. We have ambitious and coordinated plans to launch and make it one of the publishing events of 2025.”
A version of this article appeared in the 05/20/2024 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline:
