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Nicolas Cheetham has made the first acquisitions for his new list, Corvus, which is to be launched in November. Cheetham, who was formerly editor at Quercus, moved to set up the list for Atlantic two months ago.
Corvus will publish two books this year, expanding to roughly 20 next year and growing annually. Many of the books will be in series. The publisher will be looking to hire another editor and a sales and marketing team that is distinct from Atlantic.
Cheetham said: "The initial announcement of Corvus, that it would be very much genre publishing, was a slight red herring. Corvus will have a broad remit, although it will always have a very strong crime/mystery backbone. I'm aware that the market is increasingly competitive, so innovation is going to be quite important. I'll be looking into some areas that wouldn't be every publisher's first port of call."
Since his arrival, Cheetham has acquired the first in a new historical series by mystery writer Phil Rickman. Rickman's backlist, including the Merrily Watkins series, currently published by Quercus, has also gone to Corvus.
Cheetham said: "It's an interesting departure for Phil to do historical novels, and I'm delighted we have world English rights as he has an interesting sales record in the US." He added: "Phil could sell 10,000 in hardback, as he has a tremendously loyal following and is often in the top five on Amazon. But it's hard to attract new followers to a long-standing series. Dr Dee really could attract legions of fans."
The publisher has also acquired three standalone novels by American author C J Box "to match my home-grown talent". This will be the first time New York Times bestseller Box has been published in the UK. Cheetham compared his style to Linwood Barclay and Harlan Coben.
Cheetham said: "He doesn't have a noir-style private investigator stalking around—his books are filled with very normal everyday characters placed in extraordinary situations."
As well as the three standalones, Corvus will start publishing a series by Box in late 2011.