"The Songs You've Never Heard" Released In Poland

Super excited to announce that The Songs You’ve Never Heard has now been released in Poland with Harper Collins Polska - and just look at this brand new cover design, it’s absolutely stunning!! We have been so lucky to have such amazing covers for the book that really capture the story, thank you so much to the design teams.

Really looking forward to meeting new Polish readers, please let us know what you think of the story and accompanying album! :)

"Songs" Comes To Brazil!

I’m so excited to share the cover for the Brazilian edition of The Songs You’ve Never Heard which is being launched this week at the Rio De Janeiro Literary Festival.

Thank you so much to the publisher Livros Das Alice for championing the book to your Brazilian readers, and for making such beautiful promotional packages. I am absolutely thrilled for new people to discover our booksical!

The YA Book Prize 2023

I was so thrilled to find out that “The Songs You’ve Never Heard” was shortlisted for The YA Book Prize 2023 and this week I got to attend the awards ceremony in beautiful Edinburgh alongside the other amazing shortlisted authors.

Over the course of the event I got to speak on a panel, give a live reading, do two book signings and meet lots of talented and lovely new people! It was such an amazing event - please check out my diary entry for the full account!

Thank you so much to everyone behind the scenes who made it happen and to everyone who came out to celebrate UK YA. It is definitely a day I will never forget as long as I live!

'Songs' Sold For Screen!

More exciting news for The Songs You've Never Heard - we have recently sold the screen rights to Carley Smale at Integral Artists who will be adapting Meg and Alana's story into a musical teen movie!

Both Ellie and I are super excited as we always dreamed that one day our little booksical might make it to screen, and I am so excited for Carley who is an amazing screenwriter and teen movie expert to lead this project.

We will keep you posted on developments - huge thanks as always to our agent Gill at Bath Literary and our publisher Sweet Cherry Publishing!

'Songs' Shortlisted For YA Book Prize 2023

I am so excited to announced that The Songs You’ve Never Heard has been shortlisted for The YA Book Prize 2023 alongside many other absolutely amazing titles.

I have followed the YA Book Prize for many years and to be part of such an incredible line-up is an honour and an absolute dream come true! I will also get to attend the awards ceremony in Edinburgh in August and join this celebration of UK YA in person.

The Shortlist was also promoted in The Bookseller this week and made the front cover - talk about exciting times!! I can’t wait for more readers to meet Meg and Alana through the prize, and for more people to discover our ‘booksical’ for the first time!

Readers Celebrate World Book Night With Songs!

This weekend was the official date for World Book Night and it has been absolutely amazing to see readers up and down the country diving into The Songs You’ve Never Heard in celebration.

Copies of the book have been available in various libraries and mental health support networks - there was even a Pizza And Prose Party being held which looks so much fun!

Thank you so much to The Reading Agency and Sweet Cherry Publishing for making this possible - it really is a “pinch me” moment to see so many people enjoying Songs and I hope that we can encourage some curious new readers to keep picking up new books!

Songs Featured In "Big Eurovison Read" Campaign

I am sooo excited that The Songs You’ve Never Heard has been picked as a title for The Big Eurovision Read Campaign in association with BBC Arts and The Reading Agency.

These 12 titles are all music based stories and will be featured in a pop-up reading den as part of Liverpool’s Eurovision celebrations in May. As a HUGE Eurovision fan who has tried many times to get a song on the show, it is a dream come true to be part of this campaign and part of UK’s Eurovision celebrations in some small way. And with books by authors such as Nick Hornby, Terry Pratchett and Stormzy on the list, Songs is in VERY good company!

I look forward to posting more updates very soon! :)

Carrie Fletcher shouts out "Songs"!

Quick bit of news I simply had to share with everyone - the incredible and multi-talented Carrie Fletcher has mentioned The Songs You’ve Never Heard in her latest book haul!

Holding up one of our proof copies, she said the storyline of Meg having a famous older brother “felt familiar” and that she was putting the book straight to the top of her reading list! She also checked out mine and Ellie’s bios, reading about us both being songwriters ourselves and saying we clearly knew what we were talking about (a quote I will use forever)!

I have been a huge fan of Carrie’s music and writing for many years and adored her performance as Cinderella in the West End, so I am absolutely thrilled she loves the sound of Songs!

To watch Carrie’s full Instagram video at her book account “Prattle and Pages” CLICK HERE - Songs is mentioned around 9 minutes in!

'Songs' picked for World Book Night 2023

I am so excited to share that The Songs You’ve Never Heard has been selected as one of the titles for World Book Night.

This campaign is a celebration of reading for pleasure and will be providing free books to care homes, youth centres, prisons, mental health groups, public libraries and other settings.

I am very passionate about books being accessible to people from all walks of life and it is a real honour to be included on this list with so many other incredible books. The official date for the event is April 23rd so watch this space for more info!

UK YA Author Week 2022 - Interview

I am happy to share that I have been interviewed for UK YA Author Week 2022 - hosted by the book subscription box Paper Orange.

It was lovely to chat to Charley about The Songs You've Never Heard and the messages of success being a journey with ups and downs. I also got to talk about the process of weaving songs into a story, picking artists for our Top 5 Song Lists, and my experience being a plus-sized singer in the music industry.

Please do check out the video and all the other amazing interviews with UK YA authors on Charley’s channel!

The Songs You've Never Heard - Promo Trail

This summer, The Songs You’ve Never Heard has been gaining lots of attention which has been a dream come true! After the excitement of YALC, our team has been spreading the word about our musical book and I just wanted a share a few highlights…

First of all, we were interviewed by United By Pop (Click here!) and asked some incredibly thoughtful questions about our characters and writing process. I have been a big fan of this blog for a long time so it was amazing to be included on the site.

We were also recently the monthly staff pick for LoveReading4Schools which is fantastic as it will help us become more visible to schools and librarians looking to stock book shelves for their students!

Sweet Cherry have also just attended the YLG Conference, sharing The Songs You’ve Never Heard to youth librarians - it’s awesome to see the book on the stall alongside all those tempting goodie bags!

Thank you to every single person who has helped champion Songs and make it visible in the world of YA. We still have much more promo to come including podcast interviews, Instagram Lives and live events so watch this space!

The Songs You've Never Heard - OUT NOW!

IT'S LAUNCH DAY!!!!

The Songs You've Never Heard is available NOW from all book shops as both a physical copy and an eBook. To order a copy online please pick a retailer at our official website:

https://www.thesongsyouveneverheard.co.uk/book

OR please do request it from your local book shop! The more people who request the book, the more stores will buy in copies woop!

The accompanying album is also now LIVE! (see below!)

All songs were written by me and Ellie and we have amazing performances from Megan Tuck as Alana and Cathal Murphy as Caspar. (And I perform as Meg!)

We would absolutely love to know your Top 5 favourite songs on the soundtrack!! And if you are able to leave us a review on Goodreads or Amazon that would be so helpful and much appreciated!!

We really hope you love this story and these songs - we worked really hard on this and there were times we didn't know if it would actually happen... but WE NOW OFFICIALLY HAVE A BOOK WITH MUSIC EEEK!!!!

Thank you Sweet Cherry Publishing and Bath Literary Agency for making our dream come true - super excited for all the live events to come!

BOOK LAUNCH - 23rd June at Blue Bear Bookshop

BOOK LAUNCH ALERT!!! On Thursday June 23rd, Ellie and I will be at the absolutely beautiful Blue Bear Bookshop in Farnham where we will be signing copies of "The Songs You've Never Heard", answering questions and performing songs from the book live! There is even going to be nibbles and drinkies, woohoo! Book your free virtual ticket at the event page below:

Eventbrite Tickets

'Firework Display' Lyric Teaser

The second lyric teaser for mine and Ellie’s musical book “The Songs You’ve Never Heard” is now online!

Firework Display is Meg’s song about feeling overlooked by the people in her life, and wishing they would turn around and see her colours. This was such a fun one to write and perform - thank you so much to Jussi Nikula for the amazing production!

"Second First Impression" Lyric Teaser

The first lyric teaser for The Songs You’ve Never Heard is now online!

Check out the snippet from Second First Impression below:

It has been so enjoyable to perform as our leading lady Meg, and this unrequited love song plays a huge part in the story. More teasers on the way very soon, can’t wait to share the whole album!

The Songs You've Never Heard - COVER REVEAL

I am SO excited to reveal the cover to my brand new YA novel The Songs You’ve Never Heard co-written with Ellie Wyatt - due to be released in June 2022 by Clock Tower Publishing.

“'Meg McCarthy seems to be everything Alana Howard is not: rich, glamorous and - thanks to Caspar, her world-famous pop star brother - a social media influencer that every brand wants to sponsor. But while Meg is feeling trapped by the squeaky-clean McCarthy brand, plagued by online haters and too terrified to share her own talent with the world, songwriter Alana doesn’t seem to be scared of standing out. When Meg and Alana’s worlds collide, they quickly learn that appearances can be deceiving.’”

The book features a companion album of real pop songs to accompany the story and we are hoping to bring live music into bookstores for the launch! Check out the beautiful promo animation below:

Pre-order at the links below:

Amazon UK

Waterstones

WHSmith

Foyles

Blackwell's

"The Songs You've Never Heard" Being Published In 2022!

I am so so excited to finally announce a project that has been a LONG time in the works... My musical YA book written with Ellie Wyatt is being released with Clock Tower publishing in 2022 and will be available in all major book shops! Thank you Bookseller and Book Brunch for covering the story!

The Bookseller Announcement - Click Here!

‘The Songs You’ve Never Heard’ follows teen songwriter Meg who lives in the shadow of her older brother, global pop star Caspar McCarthy... Until she meets fellow musician Alana Howard and finally discovers her own voice…

Alongside the book, we have a whole album of songs as sung by Meg, Alana and Caspar to bring the characters to life! And on top of that, we will be putting on live gigs next year as part of the book launch! 🥳🥳

I am honestly so proud of this project and how much work we have put into it over the last 5 years. It is an absolute dream come true to know it will finally be reaching readers. Thank you so much to our agent Gill McClay and to Sweet Cherry/Clock Tower Publishing for believing in our project.

Stay tuned for more news soon! 😁❤