A teen thriller which has been tipped as a successor to the Twilight novels has set two Guinness records in the literary world.
Half Bad, by British author Sally Green, her supernatural thriller for young adults, created such a buzz that it was snapped up to appear in 45 languages before being published for the first time.
Green clinched her first deal with Penguin at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and her novel was finally published earlier this month.
Now it has taken two Guinness World Records for its global reach, as the most translated book - and the most translated children's book - by a debut author before publication.
Normally a book would only be translated and picked up in other territories if it had been shown to be doing well in its domestic market, but Green's book was causing waves internationally even at the manuscript stage.
The former accountant, who lives in Warrington, set her story in a modern world of good and bad witches who are living covertly in the modern world and are both afraid of a child called Nathan who is descended from both sides.
Green said: "I'm a bit stunned, but mostly delighted to have achieved two Guinness World Records titles and to know that Half Bad is going to be read all around the globe."
Francesca Dow, the managing director for Penguin children's books, said: "Sally Green is an astounding new talent and I'm delighted that so many overseas publishers have discovered the same enthusiasm for this remarkable debut as we have."
A deal has already been struck for the film rights, and Half Bad is the first in a trilogy of titles.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article