GOLLANCZ ACQUIRES ‘THE HUNGER GAMES’ PARODY

Gollancz has acquired a parody of the best-selling dystopian YA series The Hunger Games.

The Hunger but Mainly Death Games by John Bailey Owen and Aaron Geary has already been self-published by the authors and sold over 25,000 copies in both physical and eBook format in the US. Gollancz will release the book as an £4.99 eBook on Thursday, May 10th and as a £7.99 B-format hardback in mid-June.

Owen is a former editor of the Harvard Lampoon, the name behind one of Gollancz’s most successful parody novels, The Bored of the Rings, and he and Geary were also contributing authors to the New York Times bestselling Twilight parody Nightlight.

The Hunger But Mainly Death Games tells the story of Bratniss Everclean, a poor and somewhat foolish girl from Slum 12, and her adventures in the tournament of getting slightly hungry and probably dying.

World English and Commonwealth Rights (excluding Canada and America) were bought for a good four-figure sum by Gollancz editorMarcus Gippsvia Susan Schulman at Susan Schulman Literary Agency in a deal at The London Book Fair.

It is the latest in a long line of successful parody novels from Gollancz which include The Sunday Times bestselling The Soddit, The Sellamillion and Doctor Whom. Owen said he was delighted to be joining the list: ‘I’m a big fan of Gollancz, so it’s a thrill.’

Marcus Gipps said: ‘As soon as John sent me the details of The Hunger But Mainly Death Games  I knew that there was a huge potential for the book. His success in America, combined with Gollancz’s proven track record in parody publishing, made us all very excited to be bringing the project over. This is the quickest that Gollancz have produced an eBook – on sale within three weeks of agreeing the offer – and the Hardback will be following within five weeks.’