Make It Make Sense
Moa Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of Make It Make Sense, the debut from the homegrown team behind the global media sensation Shit You Should Care About (SYSCA).
Moa Press Senior Publisher Kate Stephenson acquired the book jointly with Hachette UK and Australia, in a six figure pre-empt. Make It Make Sense will publish in New Zealand in July 2024.
SYSCA was launched as a WordPress blog by three best friends from the back of a political science lecture at Victoria University in Wellington. Today it's a global ecosystem of content ‒ two podcasts, 3.5 million Instagram followers and a daily newsy. They are your culture vultures, news agents and (reluctant) agony aunts all rolled into one.
In Make It Make Sense, SYSCA cofounder Lucy Blakiston and contributor Bel Hawkins share a collage of cultural analysis, anecdotes, personal essays and poems, interplayed like a conversation between friends. So sharp they'll make you wince, so honest that you might feel uncomfortable with what's reflecting back at you, so funny you'll want to take a photo and send it to your best friend.
SYSCA co-founder Lucy Blakiston says: ‘We are SO excited about launching this book into the world! For years, we’ve had offers from publishers but they’ve never felt like the book we wanted to write or the one we knew our audience wanted to read - no one needed another book about how to read the news or go viral online. It wasn’t until Bel joined as a contributor and started writing with us about the modern experience that we knew we’d hit a nerve. It’s a life’s work to make it make sense, and we intend to create something tangible to help us figure it out together.’
Moa Press Senior Publisher Kate Stephenson says: ‘Funny, frank and unerringly perceptive, Lucy and Bel have mined their own experiences of the most extreme highs and lows of life to produce a pitch-perfect book that will become a true bedside table essential – a book to hold on to and revisit often.’
Hachette Australia Publisher Scott Henderson says: ‘Lucy and Bel have an intimate knowledge of their audience, culture, media and writing and that shows in this project; an exciting collection of essays tinged with a Kiwi sensibility that has proved a hit worldwide.’
Quercus Publishing Director Jane Sturrock says: ‘The proposal got me at the line “I’m so tired, I feel like a melted candle”. Luce and Bel’s writing is so fresh and funny and has already won them millions of followers online. They have that special knack of reflecting the fixations, encounters and mistakes that so many of us experience and reframing them in a way that helps make sense of it all – I can’t wait to work with them on their first book.’
German rights were pre-empted by Rowohlt. Alex Cliff at RML is handling translation rights and Abigail Bergstrom is handling North American rights.
Make It Make Sense will be published in a NZ trade paperback in July 2024.
For more information, please contact:
Moa Press/Hachette Aotearoa Publicity Manager
Tania Mackenzie-Cooke: [email protected]
