LYX has entered the chat
Fast, beautiful, and built for binge reading
This week, we launched our first book in partnership with LYX [pronounced “luxe”], Germany’s #1 New Adult Romance imprint. If you follow the category, you probably already know LYX—they’re the publisher behind Maxton Hall, one of the biggest breakout hits in recent years. Now, beginning with Anywhere by Sarah Sprinz, which hit stores on Tuesday, we’re bringing their proven bestsellers to North America on a publishing schedule designed for how romance readers actually consume content—FAST.
When we first embarked on this partnership, I’ll admit I was anxious. The program is ambitious: four different series launching in the first six months, with new installments releasing every two months thereafter. Add to that the fact that I’m just a few years removed from the New Adult demographic, and you can understand my trepidation.
But then I did what we always do at Authors Equity: I leaned into the model and built the right team around it.
Trusting Your Partners (and Hiring the Right People)
Part of the magic (and fun) of Authors Equity is that we can mold ourselves around the goals, needs, and ambitions of our partners. We bring publishing expertise, deep knowledge of the US market, and a lot of enthusiasm to our projects. But we’re able to wade into different categories because we acknowledge what we don’t know and trust our partners to lead where they have the expertise.
LYX has been publishing romance for nearly two decades. They’ve built a passionate, engaged community of readers in the crucial 17-25 demographic with emotional, high-quality escapist fiction. They’ve achieved extraordinary success with both international and German authors. They know what they’re doing.
In fact, LYX has been influencing how we think about romance publishing for years. Their unparalleled commitment to premium physical products—sprayed edges, standout cover designs, interior art—has set a standard that American publishers are now racing to match.
We were the right partner because we let them be them, but here. They lead on editorial and design; we bring market knowledge and distribution muscle through Simon & Schuster. But we also understood that success here requires more than simple translation—it requires someone who deeply understands this reader and this category.
Enter Danielle Finnegan, who joined us from Little, Brown as Brand Marketing Lead specifically for this partnership. Danielle gets the category, the reader, and how to build community in a crowded market. She’s been essential to figuring out how to launch this program the right way.
Our Comic Con Debut
What’s fascinating to me—from a pure business perspective—is the fan culture. In an environment where capturing and holding attention is increasingly difficult, New Adult readers are deeply engaged. They’re not just buying books; they’re collecting series, participating in online communities, driving TikTok trends, and showing up at conventions hours early. This is the kind of reader engagement that translates to sustainable sales.
Case in point: at New York Comic Con this past weekend, we gave away 1,000 LYX tote bags and 200 early copies of Anywhere. The line wrapped around the convention floor before we even opened at 10am. We had to cap it by 10:30. People were freaking out over the interior character art. That’s the energy we’re building toward.
What to Expect from LYX
Anywhere (Dunbridge Academy #1), which launched this week, is dark academia set at an elite Scottish boarding school—think atmospheric, angsty, and exactly the kind of escapist fiction that keeps you up until 3am. It spent more than 40 weeks on bestseller lists across Europe.
We’re following it up in November with Lessons in Faking by Selina Mae (Hall Beck University #1), a Wattpad sensation now in 11 languages. By spring, we’ll have introduced four series, with new installments dropping bi-monthly across the list.
What We’re Learning
This partnership reinforces one of our core beliefs: publishing magic happens with teams purpose-built for a given opportunity. LYX knows their authors, their readers, and their category. Danielle knows how to authentically speak to this reader in the US. And the rest of us can contribute what we know about making and selling books and building brands in the market at large.
None of us knows everything. But together, we can figure out anything.
—Carly
I look forward to binging these new LYX books.