I appear to have taken an accidental blogging hiatus. Whoops! That was certainly never my intention. However it has much to do with my post today, and my incredibly busy summer. Last time I blogged, I’d just finished my internships in London, which provided copious amounts of interesting things to write about. I got back home and had a week long break, then started working on writing up my Major Project. A whole summer to plan and write and research marketing LGBTQ* inclusive YA, how wonderful.

And then I accidentally got a job. *cue screeching disc scratch*

A bulletin went up via the Brookes publishing MA website. Oxford University Press were looking for an intern in the children's trade marketing and publicity department. Having just finished a month LOVING publicity at Headline, and knowing full well that children's/YA was my area of interest, this opportunity was a dream come true. I weighed up the options (Sally’s email reminded us that getting full time employment was not grounds for an extension on our project deadlines) and decided that the job was too great to pass up.

I went in for the interview with Hattie Bayly and Charlotte Armstrong and soon learned that the internship was in fact a short contract job. Oh again!!! 

There had been a crossed wire and a full time grown up actual real job was not what I was expecting from the advertisement, but this was so much better. Luckily everything went well at the interview, and I was asked to join the OUP Children’s Trade team. Myself and fellow Brookes alumna, Alesha Bonser, stepped into the very capable shoes of Publicity Executive Jennie Younger. Armed with Jennie’s two folders of notes about how to run the office, we were off - planning events, sending out Winnie the Witch costumes, writing up press releases, sending review mailings, meeting wonderful authors such as Tom Moorhouse at the launch of The River Singers, posting to the Oxford Owl page, talking to bloggers, designing marketing materials and living the dream.

And so began a summer of working full time. As well as continuing to work my ‘every other weekend’ Saturday job at The Book House...and let's not forget that major project shall we? EEP!!!

Sunday’s were generally spent sleeping and typing furiously. (Apologies to all the friends with whom I had to cancel plans!)

The project was finally handed in (after a lot of hard work and late nights) at the end of September, thanks to the help of Helena Markou, Liz Chapman, Beth Howard, Beth Cox, Zoe Marriott, James Dawson, Nina Douglas, Malinda Lo and more. Check out Erica Gillingham's brilliant introduction to UK LGBTQ YA on Malinda's diversity ya site! Now I just can’t wait to put some of my ideas into practice. Let’s hope lots more people choose to write and submit LGBTQ* inclusive fiction to receptive editors and agents (such as Non Pratt at Catnip Books) and that the UK market for diverse fiction will grow with our encouragement.

Working at OUP has definitely been a steep learning curve, stepping away from being a student to having a full time job. In the run up to my MA project deadline, I was organising OUP attendance at two festivals and accompanying authors to their events as their publicist. It’s sometimes felt like running up hill in a strong wind, but it has been an absolute blast.

I got to take my Mum's knitted sea monkey to star on stage alongside Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve at Cheltenham for Oliver and the Seawigs. I LOVE this snazzy illustrated book for young readers with big imaginations, and meeting Sarah and Philip was so much fun. I had the EEP Monkey song stuck in my head for days and even got to try my hand at illustrating. Check out a chance to win your own family portrait from Sarah here.

I somehow squeezed in other events along the way.  Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman discussed favourite children’s books at the Oxford Playhouse, followed by a marathon signing where I was armed with post-its and sharpies assisting Sam Eades once again. A trip to the Nosy Crow children's publishing conference meant that I got to meet the lovely Stacey of prettybooks and I bumped into Lucy from Project UKYA at David Levithan event during Bath Festival. We were thrilled that Every Day was FINALLY published in the UK!! I even managed to fight off the post-deadline flu and see Queen of Teen, Maureen Johnson in conversation with James Dawson at Waterstones Piccadilly. (I stole her stare). A jam packed, incredible, (slightly exhausting), thrilling summer indeed.

Last Sunday was my last ever day at The Book House. Covering during Thame Arts and Literature Festival, I said goodbye to the shop that I've worked at since I was seventeen. Eight years is a long time, and the shop has very much shaped who I am and who I will be. I was delighted to see how much support there was for the Books Are My Bag campaign - for which we decked out Fat Puffin in orange balloons and a fetching t-shirt. Now I plan to use my free Saturdays browsing their shelves and maybe I'll have enough time to actually dip into some of the wonderful and exciting books to be found on them. Huge thanks to Luise and Brian for allowing me to learn from their expertise for so many enjoyable years. 

But there are book reviews I need to write and a MOUNTAIN of books I want to read, and with some upcoming exciting projects, I'm determined now to get back into maintaining this blog with my adventures working in publishing... 

Charlieinabook is back!

Feel free to ask any questions below about what the first few months in a new job has been like, I'd love to know what might intrigue you about the experience, especially if you want to get into publishing yourself. 

So this is it, the big one. Interning for Headline was an unexpected windfall opportunity, having made a fortuitous contact with publicist extraordinaire Samantha Eades at a Book House signing last December for Eowyn Ivey’s magical novel The Snow Child. Sending her my cover letter and CV, I was incredibly excited to be offered the chance to intern for the Headline Publicity department for an entire month.

On my first day I was ushered up to the sixteenth floor of the Hachette building on Euston Road. Having spent the previous week at the beautiful but compact Hot Key Books office and my internship before that in a little three man office in Oxford, this big skyscraper of an office block was a bit of a shock. It had views! It had glass elevators with no buttons! Swanky.

Along with a fellow intern, I was immediately thrown in at the deep end. Introduced to Publicity Director, Georgina Moore, we were then given a desk, a computer and an email account. OICPS alumni Elaine Egan distributed newspapers and it was time to read through the weekend articles and search for references to any Headline or Tinder Press books in the reviews. Helena Towers was working on a brilliant and far reaching campaign for The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls that had a lot of media coverage, and there were some great mentions for Tanya Byrne’s Follow Me Down. These clippings were collated and scanned for a weekly round-up.

I was able to sit in on a board meeting with the MD to discuss upcoming titles for the season, a highly informative way of learning about how departments interrelate when coming up with effective campaigns. This suddenly made New Product Development make sense, watching everything come together.

As I was lucky enough (ha – who would have thought I’d be saying that?) to be taught InDesign in my first semester at Brookes, Caitlin Raynor gave me the task of designing a press release for Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye. It was very nice to realise that I’d indeed learnt something beneficial in those classes, and to experiment and hone my design skills. These press releases were printed and folded alongside posting out books for review.  My hand soon got well acquainted with the particular ache of stapling 500 or so envelopes a day. Carrying the piles to the post room area was strangely satisfying. I also learnt to do other exciting things like convert Excel spreadsheets into printed labels, and track down editor addresses on Gorkana media coverage.

I was asked to read Peggy Riley’s Amity & Sorrow (a book of which I had picked up a proof from work, but had not yet read). It was incredibly powerful and affecting, a story that refuses to sugar coat, that uses language as an expository force. My task was to design a Pinterest board for Tinder Press, taking pictures and matching them with quotes from the book. Peggy responded very favourably to the board, which might have induced a little happy dance, and I was incredibly proud to work on it.

In my first two weeks I was lucky to meet the wonderful Sophie Lay, my fellow intern and partner in crime. Sophie’s positive and approachable manner meant that I was learning the ropes with a friend. She let me know about some amazing opportunities that were happening in London. Together we went to the Southbank Centre for London Literary Festival’s event with Audrey Niffenegger, my second time meeting the author. This time she was discussing her new illustrated fairy tale for adults, Raven Girl, which I reviewed for MuggleNet.

Sophie also told me all about Stoke Newington Literary Festival. We spent one sunny Saturday distributing programmes, and the following Sunday I was able to FINALLY see Sally Gardner speak at an event for her Costa and Carnegie award winning Maggot Moon. It was really nice to see so many people new to Sally’s work buying books and approaching her for the signing at the end, as well as catch up with Hot Key Books staff. With a free afternoon, I volunteered to help out with the festival and ended up with a ticket to see Caitlin Moran.

Back at Headline, Sophie created a Pinterest board for Silver Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick’s heart stopping new young adult novel, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. With a dark plot and plenty of references to film noir and Bogart and Bacall, the visual element was exciting to pin down. I took over completion of the board from Sophie when she left to go back to her full time job, although it felt a bit like looking after someone else’s baby. It was fun to see Matthew’s Little, Brown editor, Alvina Ling, follow the board, showing how internet promotion campaigns can reach across the pond!

We’d also been able to meet Mock the Week’s Hugh Dennis (aka Pete) who came in to sign stock of his book Britty, Britty, Bang Bang. It was interesting to see his editors, cover designer and so on get their copies signed. The following week we repeated the process of boxing up signed stock, this time for football manager, Neil Warnock. These signings coincided with press days, the authors being interview by newspaper and radio journalists. They also made great candidates to be interviewed by Ben Willis for a feature on the Headline website, Men Who Stare At Books.

For the final two weeks I was joined by fellow OICPS student, Clara. Press Officer, Vero Norton gave us copies of The Outline of Love to read, another Tinder Press novel about love, obsession and celebrity. If anyone else has read it, I would be very interested to know who you think of when casting Leo Ford!

One of my tasks was to design posters and showcards, including some for Crimefest authors, some for Kate Humble’s new book, and a couple for a school visit from New York YA author Jennifer E. Smith to promote her new novel This Is What Happy Looks Like. (Which is NOT based on Justin Beiber, but might have a tiny hint of RPattz!) I’d heard of Jen’s books from a John Green video, and was very happy to act as publicity assistant on her trip to a nearby girls’ school. The girls had a great range of questions, and every single person bought one or both of the books. Jen’s first book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, is soon to be made into a movie, helmed by the director of Milk.

As this was all happening, I also got involved with a project run by Beth Cox. Together with Alexandra Strick, they run Inclusive Minds, which aims to promote equality in children’s literature. Beth asked me to help with proofreading papers for the ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Equality’ edition of Write4Children. I have also joined Inclusive Minds as a content collaborator for the website, reviewing books and reporting on news items such as the launch party for Alex Strick’s Max the Champion.

For the entire month, there were many excited whisperings about The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the new novel by Neil Gaiman. Sam received many requests for interview copies, so my task was often posting out copies for review (being very careful to peel off the ‘book at bedtime’ stickers from each copy until it was announced) and including the press release.

So my final official day was spent with Clara, flapping 1200 books ready to be signed.

And then the thing that deserves a blog post all of its own happened.

GAIMAN DAY.

In my first year of undergraduate studies at the University of Kent, my favourite module by a mile was a wonderful year long course entitled ‘The Tale.’ This was the history of fairy tales, starting from the oral folk tradition of myths and legends across the globe, to the French courts of King Louis XIV and the ballroom glamour of Charles Perrault, to the gritty collection of the Brothers Grimm and on to Angela Carter.  The papers I turned in throughout the course were heavily influenced by the critical thinking of Jack Zipes.

So when I received an email saying that Oxford’s Story Museum would be holding an event in just a few weeks with the incredible Michael Rosen and none other than Professor Jack Zipes, I flailed. Shouted for Mum (who first introduced me to fairytales after all). Flapped a bit. And excitedly booked my ticket. The queue, when I arrived on Friday 29th April, was stretched around the street.

The Story Museum are running a series of events called ‘1001 Stories’, a Scheherezade (which I just spelled correctly on my first attempt, go me!) experience with experts from around the world. 


‘The Story Museum exists to celebrate children's stories and to share enjoyable ways for young people to learn through stories as they grow.’  I love this mission statement. However perhaps this particular talk should have come with a warning label for little children, as one little girl and her mother hurriedly scurried away upon realising that the true tales of the Brothers Grimm are not quite the tales from Orchard or Usborne. 

Jack Zipes is a published author, translator of Grimms fairy tales, Professor at the University of Minnesota, and a story teller in an array of state schools. He believes that fairy tales weave narratives into daily existence, bound into cultural traditions that deal with basic human problems. They are basic stories that deal with every day existence and they are necessary because life is hard.

Fairy tales, says Zipes, give us hope that we can resolve conflict. 

Mr Rosen led a lively discussion exploring Mr Zipes' expert opinion on all things Grimm.

These tales aren’t the animated glitz of Walt Disney. Red Riding Hood, as many are aware, is about the rape of a young girl. Emanating from patriarchal traditions, the girl is shown to have brought the rape upon herself by not adhering to the rules. According to Zipes, many story tellers try to pretty it up. In the Perrault version she is gobbled up. The message seems to be that little girls who invite wolves into their parlours deserve what they get. Great storytellers change this narrative to reflect a different perspective, what Zipes calls the anti-red riding hood. It is his belief that publishers stupidly publish tales that put the onus on the little girl. Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves gives tales such as these a feminist spin and reclaims them without sugar coating.

The talk turned to recent television shows from the US such as Once Upon A Time and Grimm that Zipes believes lazily recreate the tales without artistic vision. He believes that writers should take the Grimm brothers seriously and explore all the tales, not just the famous and familiar. We asked Mr. Zipes why he believed retellings such as these were so popular now? He responded that magical narratives involve spectacle, and digital film making lends to magic. Even, he grinned, with awful films like Witch Hunters. He also noted that with films and shows like these the evil is in the hands of a woman, and that Hollywood is involved in a strange backlash against feminism that has been occuring from 1980s to today. Furthermore he says that with the recession and suffering in society, fairy tale films with saccharine plots or needless special effects are diverting. He worries that shows and movies such as Mirror, Mirror dumb down the tales until they no longer reflect their true purpose. Authors and publishers should aim to produce artful tales that Western cinema overlooks. This discussion is explored more thoroughly in Mr. Zipes book Enchanted Screens. 

My sister and I are watching Once Upon A Time, and whilst I agree that some plots are replicated and mishandled, that stereotypes prevail, I do think that the narrative is handled with more care and intricacy than some of its comparisons here.

Zipes is currently working to translate the original collection of Grimms tales, first published between 1812-1815. There were seven different original editions compiled by the brothers. The last editon was published in 1857. The most well known version was published between 1826-58, a smaller collection of just fifty tales.

In Zipes' opinion, the 1812 edition is the closest to oral tradition. These were brutal honest reflections of rural life, for example  How Children Play with Slaughtering in which young friends decide to play act a butchery. ‘I'll be the pig, you be the butcher, and the girl collects blood in pot.’ The ‘pig’ is offered a choice, apple or knife, and the tale ends in an execution. Many of these tales explored death. Another featured brothers again play acting butchery whilst a mother watches on from a window. Appalled she leaves behind her baby, who dies whilst she punishes her son. Torn apart by grief, she commits suicide. These huge themes of family loss told in a blunt unique style are certainly not magical. They maintain German Nordic tradition, which includes very few fairies. The moral to the story is that two older brothers WILL try to kill you.

The erudite brothers were writing in their early twenties. Wilhelm Grimm (the younger brother) acted as editor between the editions, adding in Christian elements and in tales like Hansel and Gretal going so far as to change family connections to create a more nuclear bourgeois setting. The book became more literary, with changed style and key motifs.  Zipes believes that Wilhelm was doing what good storytellers do, and embellishing. However it caused much debate between the brothers, with Jacob the elder preferring the printed originals of the first edition. Wilhelm wanted it to appeal to masses.

The first two volumes were not intended for children. They included no drawings and looked like the rough first edition. They didn't sell well. Jacob allowed Wilhelm to make changes within the tales after receiving criticism. And the Grimm policy to keep strictly to the oral tales in written form changed in 1823 after receiving Edgar Taylor's popular stories. These were illustrated by George Cruikshank, had a sense of humour and were sold as a book for children. It did so well that it got two editions more printed in same year. So Grimm did the same, picking hopeful tales in a smaller volume for children, which his brother Ludwig illustrated.

In England this translation was the only one available until the 1850s. The English had no idea what the full book was like in the 19th century. Most English households are still unaware of what the ‘real’ tales are like, familiar with the many rewrites and censored editions. Puffin have published three different editions of Grimm for children, a hardback and two smaller paperbacks, but using Taylor's tales, not Grimms! They are able to make profit from Cruikshank’s illustrations and stories that are in the public domain.

Zipes' theory  is that the brothers felt by this point that they knew oral tradition, and understood the essence of storytelling. Therefore above all else they wanted the tales to resonate with readers. They also wanted to leave their own legacy.

In some examples of changes made, the Snow White of the 1812 edition was originally more like Carter's Snow Child in The Bloody Chamber, the girl abandoned by her father and jealous mother on side of road. In another edition ‘Mirror’ was the name of a dog, with the queen calling ‘mirror mirror!’, and the dog speaks back. There was no major role for the prince in these tales, they were not romance. The Grimms purposefully changed the status of the mother from biological to a step mother, for the sanctity of their Christian beliefs regarding the Holy Mother.

When asked for recommendations for fairy tales with strong female characters that did not resort to masculinisation of females in order to make them appear less 'weak', Zipes suggested Angela Carter’s anthology. But he also noted that some of the original tales from the Grimm brothers were supportive of strong women, for example the tale of the clever farmer’s daughter.  Clare Keegan’s Irish stories offer folk examples where women control the choosing of their husbands.

During the question and answer session at the end of the talk, Mr Rosen opened up the discussion to the floor. My teacher at Oxford Brookes, Sally Hughes, asked how the books were received by readers at the time. Zipes explained that it was not until 1840-50s that the tales took off. Hans Christian Andersen was much more popular. But the Grimm brothers became part of the school curriculum in the 1870s, when the German nation united. Bourgeois families recognised that the original tales were not quite child friendly, but once accepted by the schools the smaller edition leaked back into family homes. Single tales also appeared in ‘chap’ books. These short narratives were chunkable, and publishers could take advantage of publishing one at a time. To aid in this practice, Wilhelm added proverbs and changed phrasing adding greater historical depth such as passages from the Luther bible.

The Story Museum is part of the Happy Museum project, hoping to build an arc of stories, from all times and places. As well as their dramatised 1001 stories series, they ask visitors to leave behind a book recommendation on paper stars to add to their collection of narratives. I chose Malindo Lo’s young adult retelling of Cinderella, Ash, to add to archive as I think Mr. Zipes would approve of the critical thinking and narrative intent behind the story.

The next event run by Story Museum is with author Kevin Crossley-Holland on 10th July discussing Norse Mythology. 

After spending a week sightseeing in Italy, the sun shone more for London Book Fair than Bologna.The venue at Earl’s Court was buzzing with digital news, publishing plans and author events. Kobo adverts spread across the building in banners and the HarperCollins, Bonnier, Penguin and Random House stands prominently displayed their new titles. Whilst Bologna felt more personal, thousands of stands pressed close together in halls filled with friends and professionals discussing business for 2013-14.

Volunteering on Tuesday provided the perfect opportunity to sit in on a series of talks and learn about the current publishing climate. My duties for the day ranged from answering queries from the attendants, providing water for the speakers and greeting them to the room, and acting as microphone runner during Q&A sessions. 

I was situated in the Old Press Office with the Children's seminars which means I have a lot of exciting things to blog about! 

The first talk I was asked to help out with was the Booktrust Equal Measures panel, discussing inclusion and diversity in books for Children and Young Adults. Having attended the LGBT YA talk in February and then been lucky enough to have Beth Cox from Inclusive Minds come to talk to the Children’s Publishing class at Brookes, I was particularly excited to listen to what the panel had to say. The talk was introduced by Alexandra Strick who demonstrated the brilliant talking pen poster for Inclusive Minds. This gave voice to children’s experiences of seeing themselves represented in fiction and books. “Why are children like me always the sidekick and never the main character?”

The incredible Verna Wilkins delivered her key note speech, and gave the audience a short history of Tamarind Books, the publishing house she established to give black children like her son images of themselves in stories. Her message was that if you want to change something, you can, just be proactive and prepare to fight for your voice to be heard. Good teachers recognise that education is a widening of experiences so Tamarind books sold well in schools. And in response to booksellers saying that their customers didn’t look like her characters, Verna’s son recognised that her response was going to be “You got a lot of Gruffalos around here?” and promptly distracted her. Beth pointed out that the best kind of inclusion is incidental, not making a statement for the sake of “issues” or ticking off a box, but simply representing the world as it is. All children need to see diversity in books to provide a true representation of the world and learn to be open minded. Fen Coles from Letterbox Library listed some gaps in the current publishing landscape for inclusion: books representing transgender characters, diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, children with mental health issues and disabilities, and more. She posed the challenge of writing material that excluded use of gender pronouns full stop and simply explored children living their lives and pursuing their interests as individuals. She also warned against the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes for example villains portrayed as scarred. 

PHD student Erica Gillingham researches LGBT* inclusive books and says that yes books are out there, despite the lack of awareness for mainstream business. She pointed out that when it comes to love and romance for LGBT* characters, the US is leaps and bounds ahead of the UK (as was discussed during the LGBT* YA panel in February) and that even then the majority of characters were cis!male white teens in America. The B and the T in the umbrella need a lot more exploration. She recommended Malinda Lo’s science fiction YA novel Adaptation for an excellent representation of a bisexuality, but could only name four trans* books for the young adult market. I've just finished reading LR Lam's YA novel Pantomime which features an intersex character and fluid sexuality, with a futuristic fantasy setting and scenes of circus life.

The key advice for the industry was “Be brave, little things make a difference, avoid negative stereotypes, think about language and be inclusive.”

The ‘New Demands On, and Support For, Writers’ panel chaired by author Justin Somper, featured many of the buzz words of LBF13. Author Sarah McIntyre (jabberwocks) championed blogging as a means of networking by building an author brand. She also discussed supportive initiatives such as SCWBI and Society of Authors to hone skills. Curtis Brown Literary Agent Stephanie Thwaites and Bookbrunch journalist Liz Thompson discussed the merits and pitfalls of writing courses. Although much of the audience seemed to appreciate the feeling of companionship and the advice offered, Liz warned that research is vital to finding suitable courses that provide reasonable advice. Sarah McIntyre suggested a compromise, requesting chunkable courses that focus on improving key areas such as social media writing and management. This would help publishers and authors manage the demands on writers to become brand names, generating their own PR and participating on the festival circuit. Another suggestion came from the audience who suggested booksellers are often happy to run events with authors not present if they are later contactable for feedback or competition judges for individuals.

In the panel discussing “What’s Poetry’s Problem?” the speakers suggested that digital routes such as YouTube and twitter provided an excellent route for engaging young readers in poetry as spoken performance. They noted that children love poetry and rhyme (The Gruffalo is in rhyme after all) and that it is parents and teachers who are uncertain and lack confidence in teaching the material, perhaps because Key Stage 3 poetry encourages writing and reading, whereas GCSE poetry becomes heavily analytical. Penguin have launched a Poetry by Heart app which gives an audio visual experience. This was also referred to during the digistories panel about enhanced books. PenguinUSA’s poetry app has received much fever after its recent release, making learning interactive. However drawbacks include the trouble with free apps with monetized stages embedded within, and the controversies surrounding hidden costs after point of purchase. The panel agreed that there is indeed a future in enhanced fiction, but the work at the moment is a constantly evolving process with kinks still to be worked out on a trial and error basis. Fellow OICPS student, Judith Paskin, has been researching the books/ebooks/apps popularity among children in the Oxfordshire area. Her research shows that older children are more jaded about the gadgets and need more enticing to consider them stories. But that they are more likely to choose their own books with the anonymity of online buying (parents credit card access aside!) The most important thing for publishers to do is ensure that interactivity is right, that digital isn't just a distraction from the flow of reading. A sentiment shared by the publishers on the panel.

Digital received a huge buzz throughout the fair, from the opening conference talk with Neil Gaiman asking publishers to take risks and think big and fail better, to smaller projects such as the Random House initiative sourcing teen authors in their Movellas competition. The final talk in the Old Press Office discussed the future of enhanced fiction. Sarah Benton demonstrated the utility of Sally Gardner’s Maggot Moon iBook which provides video and sound insight into the mind of a dyslexic reader as well as factual research surrounding the narrative. Hot Key Books have also been involved in an on-going online writing project Story Adventure for young children, in which they collaborate with author Fleur Hitchcock to write the sequel to her fiction book Shrunk!. Gaming developers suggested the epic world building around fantasy novels provided the most exciting opportunity for the end users, authors and gamers alike. The most important factor to separate gaming from publishing books was the involvement of authors and a clear narrative. Publishers are experts in story and need to bring those skills to the table when collaborating with the technical departments.

In all the experience of volunteering at London Book Fair was extremely beneficial. I met many industry insiders, was able to discuss areas of interest, research New Product Development by observing companies operate. Most of all it was fun and rewarding experience. Maybe next year I will get to attend as a professional publisher, rather than bookseller and student!

I shall be writing a follow up blog in the next few days on the two New Adult panels I attended, with author Abbi Glines, Liz Bankes and Tanya Byrne, so keep an eye out for "New Adult and YA and Steamies, oh my!" and in the meantime here's a sneak peek featured on the Oxford Brookes Publishing site.

When I was fourteen I read Mary Hoffman’s Stravaganza: City of Masks, a young adult novel set both in contemporary England and in an alternate Venice 500 years in the past. Reading that book whilst on a family holiday captured my imagination and sparked my love of Venice. It made me want to learn Italian so I could revisit the city during my gap year, and eventually live there to study at Ca’ Foscari and Venice International University during my BA Erasmus year.

Why am I talking about Venice, when myself and my peers at OICPS have recently visited Bologna for the international rights fair?

Because as an introduction to the event Brookes had arranged by complete coincidence for us to meet the author of Stravaganza! What a dream come true.

I’d expressed my happiness at the coincidence on twitter the week before, and Mary responded in turn to say how happy she was that a reader of her books would be at the meeting. In a strange coincidence she was due to meet with Laura Tosi after her jaunt at Bologna, a lady whose lecture I had attended whilst studying in Venice.

Meeting with myself, Laura and Judith in the comfortable business lounge (complete with squishy seats!) Mary Hoffman set the scene and gave us insight into this year at the fair. We discussed her findings and our own. In conversation with The Bookseller, she’d noted that picture books were on the rise. The illustrator presence at the fair was huge, with walls of example pictures and cards coating the lounge, and engaging talks with some key players. There was Big Picture Press a new sister imprint of Templar. Scholastic had a great title, The Snatcha Book in which a little creature snatches away bedtime stories for company. Emily Gravett had a promising next offering, Little Mouse’s Big Book of Beasts. In my wandering I also stumbled upon David Fickling Book's gorgeous cover for Very Little Red Riding Hood by Heapy and Heap at the Random House stand. And Salariya had reissued a childhood classic in Old Bear that had many of us feeling nostalgia pangs.

One of the biggest draws of the fair was Nosy Crow's stand, their bright red display proudly boasting the numerous awards they have scooped up in recent years particularly for their ahead of the times digital content and apps for younger readers. When we walked past them the queue was building up the aisle for the chance to talk to their team. 

There was likewise some buzz for several young adult authors, S.R. Johannes’ wilderness thriller Untraceable offering contemporary realism and romance, Walker Books’ Neverending a sinister new romance, and a lot of interest in Hot Key Books list which is expanding from 9 titles published in 2012 to 50 in 2013. They saw success with the crossover appeal of Maggot Moon, creating an adult cover for a new edition, and generated buzz over titles such as The Blue Lady with eye catching cover art adorning wall sized posters. David Fickling Books YA forensic science meets magic book Spellbinder gained a lot of word of mouth and rumours of film interest. US publisher Little Brown still proudly displayed a range of YA supernatural titles like Malinda Lo’s Inheritance and Holly Black’s The Coldest Girl in Cold Town - described as the vampire book you didn’t know you still needed to read. However there was a definite moving away from the previous years' obsession with Young Adult dystopian trilogies. 

Barrington Stoke’s rebranded list of dyslexia friendly titles has captured the attention of high profile authors including Michael Morpurgo, Gillian Cross, Malorie Blackmam, Eoin Colfer and more. Their squirrel logo and slogan ‘cracking reading’ gives the publishing house a more approachable feel.

As a whole the industry was moving towards a lot of renewed interest in Middle Grade fiction. Bonnier imprint Red Lemon Press displayed Being A Boy by James Dawson. There was also Emily Diamand’s Ways to See A Ghost, and World War One fiction such as Dog In No-Mans Land. Little Brown also had a number of middle grade fiction titles including the sequel to Chris Colfer’s The Land Of Stories, cover art covered up under sheet paper until it is no longer embargoed. Disney-Hyperion praised Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky, a middle grade book about transgender identity and gender fluidity, a book about issues that tells the story in a way that doesn’t become an “issue book”. R.J Palacio’s Wonder seemingly paving the way for a rise in engaging and stimulating books for younger readers.

We left Mary with lots to think about and keep an eye out for in our walk around the fair. And furthermore she graciously agreed to sign my copy of City of Masks with a lovely message. Maybe one day I will get to publish one of her books, as coincidences such as this chance encounter can happen when you least expect it!


Part Two

OICPS organised several other meetings with industry members throughout Wednesday, demonstrating a variety of points of view across the Children's publishing world. Our Italian students paid a visit to Mondadori, who publish the translations of major bestsellers like Suzanne Collins and Rick Riordan as well as classic Italian literature like Italo Calvino's fairy tale retellings.

My next meeting was with Thames & Hudson, and Tiziana Zaini a former OICPS student who now works for the T&H Children’s Rights team. Known primarily for high quality art books for the adult market, the children’s list is a new direction for the publishing house.The children’s team not only had to establish themselves within the market, but also convince Thames & Hudson of the validity of creating this new list.

She and her boss gave us some insight into the way they work. It takes one year in advance of publication to secure the co-edition and foreign language deals necessary to make publication viable in its first print run. Due to the restriction of permissions, Thames & Hudson don’t offer digital content, instead they focus primarily on creating beautiful books that adults and children alike will want to display and treat as a valuable object. These are visually exquisite: The Book House displayed one of their latest titles, a paper cutting illustrated fairy tale book, in their Christmas window.

Disadvantages: time and start-up costs, including building contacts from scratch and conducting field research for younger readers. Money and investment in coming to extra fairs like Bologna, outside of Thames & Hudson’s previous publishing circle. The Rights team had only been to the fair for three years, and this year was the first that they’d felt they had successfully established themselves as a producer of children’s art materials in the eyes of their competitors and potential customers.

Advantages: Penetrating new markets, countries that wouldn’t invest in large hardback art books for adults due to costs but would happily invest in cheaper child friendly material. Likewise maintaining contacts with previous Thames & Hudson markets and expanding what they have to offer. By employing specialist editor Jane Wiltshire who had designer, editor and illustrator contacts, Thames & Hudson began to strengthen their list as an identity with a range of 25 titles, selling 350,000 copies in translation of 21 languages since 2007

Later we met with Usborne, whose striking red castle display lent itself well to the company image. Bright, playful and yet a sturdy and well recognised brand, our discussion showed the strength and expanding presence that Usborne holds in the children’s market place, particularly amongst activity books. Our contact had worked for Usborne for thirteen years and gushed about the company, saying she couldn’t imagine working anywhere else. I felt that compared to some of the others we had seen this was most definitely a giant, a well-oiled machine that delivered products for co-edition that were carefully in keeping with an established customer base expectation.  

At the Lion Hudson stand, Robert Seath the International Rights Manager offered us the chance to role play a Rights deal. Zara, Judith and I became an Italian travel publishers interested in expanding our list to include biblical gift books, whilst Karly and Laura attempted to purchase the US and Spanish translation Rights for a series of activity books for their Bible belt company. Walking through the deal, it was easy to see the nuances of negotiating, and the business mind required for the job. Honesty and a careful hand were the main criteria needed. Don’t promise too much yet don’t underestimate your abilities or your customers. Karly and Laura secured their deal taking it off the table with a handshake (an industry promise) whereas my little team decided to return with further research proving we could secure a large pre-order in the gift shop market.

After our conversation with Lion Hudson we met up with our teacher, Sally Hughes, in time for the OICPS talk at the digital cafe. Zara and Judith had researched the merits of apps and ebooks, and asked South Oxfordshire children whether they thought interactivity meant they read more. Their findings showed that encouraging children to read rather than play games is an ongoing process.  

Our final appointment of the day was with Oxford University Press. Polly Silk from SYP was mid-deal when we arrived so we waited a little while for the chance to speak with her and her boss Anne-Marie Hansen (keeping a hopeful eye out for handshakes and smiles!) But as we’d located an ice cream van and a bench to rest our aching feet, this wasn’t a hardship. Anne-Marie showed us the many language editions proudly displayed on OUP’s shelves, for example a modern illustrated edition of Wind in the Willows. She also explained that not all titles would sell to the markets you’d expect, for example the highly popular English picture book and young readers series Winnie the Witch has yet to break America despite 25 years of success in the UK. OUP illustrated dictionaries did very well in co-editions, with foreign publishers adapting cover designs to suit their own market (Scholastic’s Education branch adapting the cover to fit in with their own dictionary list.) The OUP stand was proudly illustrated with sea monkeys to show off their big buzz title Oliver and the Seawigs by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre.

After this long and intense but incredibly beneficial day, OICPS dashed to the cloakroom to rescue our coats with fifteen minutes to spare and then headed into the centre of Bologna to celebrate our success (and Sally’s recovery of her passport) with wine and pizza, spritz aperol and a buffet. Many thanks to Sara and Laura for finding Cafe Zamboni and showing us some Italian nightlife!

I had a really wonderful time visiting the fair, witnessing the real life of publishing and seeing books find homes in new markets around the world. I would definitely recommend paying the fair a visit if you are interested in Rights or in Children's publishing, as it shows how the industry operates on a large scale. I can't wait to see what happens to the books we heard whispers about when they are published and released into the wild!


I shall leave you with an image of the catalogues I managed to scoop up on my travels...

Part One

My week with David Fickling Books was the perfect quiet introduction into the practical world of publishing.

Hopping on a bus to Oxford in the snow, I (carefully) made my way each morning to their little offices on Beaumont Street. This being my first official internship, I was somewhat nervous. However the welcoming warm library in the reception, filled with recognisable and well loved titles, instantly put me at ease. DFB is a small imprint of Random House and their offices are home to the editorial staff and of course David Fickling himself.

I'd spoked to Matilda Johnson, who manages David's office as well as submissions and editorial responsibilities, both via twitter and when arranging my internship. She was the first person I met in the office on Monday. She showed me around and made me feel at home (leading me to the all important coffee making facilities - although rather than the usual cliche of the interns making the rounds I was generously offered drinks throughout the day, how lovely!) and set me to work reading manuscripts submitted into the slush pile that week.

The author's work came with a cover letter and a couple of chapters, or a full picture book text often accompanied by a doodled idea of illustration potential. These texts came from authors without literary agents, as DFB is open to finding the diamond in the rough and allows open submissions. Some of these were very rough, not in keeping with the DFB line, or simply needed more work before becoming ready for a publisher to take it on. I did find one chapter book for 8-12s that looked like it had potential. As well as a few barmy ideas that made me smile. On Friday I had the responsibility of sending out rejection letters, something that seemed strange at first, but you soon realise that for a small publisher which accepts 12-20 titles a year, this is a key component of the job.

Throughout the week I was asked to read a manuscript of a book currently going through the editorial process, an upcoming novel entitled The Waking World by Tom Huddleston, and the chapter summaries for the sequel. A fantasy, post-apocalyptic, Arthurian adventure, I found the book incredibly enjoyable and look forward to seeing what becomes of it once it is published in October 2013. 

I did this again for a chapter book for younger readers. Throughout both readings, I found the best way to absorb the story was to read it carefully and jot down notes in my notebook as I went along. It was important to not be afraid of being critical, or saying what changes I believed would be appropriate. Once finished reading, I looked over my notes, considered the overall arch of the story and wrote a document on the changes I would make for review by the editors. On Thursday I had a meeting with David to discuss my thoughts, and he gave me the advice that my opinions were valid, as I am a reader, and that an editor must establish a friendly but firm rapport with their authors and have mutual trust that the comments provided intend to produce the best piece of work possible. The chapter book would need more work, and it was very interesting to hear the editorial comments that showed why it would not be chosen for publication yet.

Matilda also showed me through the process of selecting potential cover designs, and the stages of development and approval. The editorial team works with the author's vision and works with sales to settle on the final cover. Issues such as font, shadows, cropping, colours and design all come in to play when trying to create an eye catching and appropriate design. 

I very much enjoyed my week interning at David Fickling Books, and would love to return in the future.

Best of luck to the team and especially to Mr Huddleston with his The Waking World.

- Charlie

P.S. thank you for my beautiful copy of The Feathered Man, I look forward to reading it!

Busy month has been extremely busy! I've been awfully quiet this December - but hard at work over here in Oxford. Our assignments have been ticked off one by one. Farewell editorial report and presentation, farewell design and production sample chapters and BLAD, farewell marketing plan. You were a hoot.

(I'm now nocturnal.)

We've officially proposed our Online Dating Guide for the Young Professional (Click Online Dating in the City), and although we didn't win the Pan Macmillan editorial prize (which went to the extremely deserving team who created Happy Hedgehogs a Gluten-free cookbook for kids with 'prickly tummies') we probably won with the world's most co-operative and peaceful team building experience. It was great working with you team 11!

Karly and I spent many an afternoon with wicked witches and dastardly devils trying to get to grips with the ins and outs of InDesign to redesign Monsters in the Movies into a new paperback format, with revised text and layout. Vampires and Werewolves, ghosts, fairytales and modern monsters were all scanned, edited and reformatted. And eventually we even figured out how to do the preflight checks (tip: do this as you go along and spot mistakes on the way!) My most successful accomplishment was learning how to do clipping paths on photoshop. I'll be reading my InDesign guide back to front this Christmas break to try and figure it all out at home.

And Beth and I have literally just this minute submitted our Marketing Plan for a series of four 'Living With...' titles under the Jessica Kingsley Publishers brand list. 

FREEDOM!

In other news I've managed to stumble my happy way into three upcoming internships in 2013. The first you already know about, David Fickling Books, which starts in January. I've been reading lots of wonderful DFB titles in preparation, and am particularly fond of Richard Coleridge's beautiful winter picturebook When it Snows. 

The second is a week in May with the sales and marketing department of an up and coming Childrens and Young Adult trade fiction imprint called Hot Key Books, who have signed Sally Gardner's fabulously trippy tale Maggot Moon, and one of my favourite American teen writers, Maureen Johnson. I'm hoping to build my dissertation/major project around the idea of social media and community building with marketing and PR in Young Adult markets, so am particularly excited at this amazing opportunity.

And finally I am incredibly happy to have been offered a month internship at Headline books immediately following my week at Hot Key. I can't wait to follow up the book signing event with Eowyn Ivey and Sam Eades with the chance to peek behind the scenes at the build up to such a campaign.

So I hope you all enjoy your winter holidays.

I shall be reading:

Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey (I'm half way through and it is beautiful, a definite must read!)
Divergent - Veronica Roth
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairytale Land In A Ship Of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente
The Feathered Man - Jeremy de Quidt
A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness 
Heart-Shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne

It's week 8 of the OICPS publishing MA, and the assessment period is here. Following a marketing exam which went well - I think, we shall find out next week - we had a proofreading test this week. 

I definitely did not expect it to be quite so tough. We had to mark up three text pieces and answer ten questions in an hour and a half. I tried to pay so much attention to detail on the first piece that time ran away from me. This happened to a few of us from what I can gather, regardless of all that practice beforehand. And what seemed like a sweet children's story about fluffy bunnies evolved into an alarming tale of twisted cannibal critters! 

Our first assignment piece is also due in this week from digital product design. Together with my partner Karly, I came up with a digital app proposal that took elements from the book Monsters in the Movies, by John Landis, and turned it into an interactive media Monsters in Motion. The pictures from the book come to life in video clips and the information from the book is broken down into bitesize chunks. We also added a social media element with a photo manipulation platform that would allow users to transform their friends into vampires, werewolves and more. Perfect for those mourning the end of the Twilight trilogy (and even for those celebrating the franchise's demise!) Now we just have to work out how to format the proposal into a PDF and submit it. 

Fingers crossed.

My editorial group is off to a great start as well, with effective division of the tasks. My weekend will be spent writing a hypothetical online dating guide chapter, to compliment the current trend for the phenomenon. Our biggest dilemma is understanding why the gap in the market seems to be so vast. Even the Dummies guide is nearly a decade out of date!

I've also applied for a publicity internship with Princeton University Press which looks like a very exciting opportunity to learn about a vast spectrum of the publishing industry from marketing to rights. Now it's the waiting game to hear back from them.

Good luck to all my fellow MA students who are about to tumble down the rabbit hole into assessment wonderland. We're all mad here, after all!

This blog comes in two parts.

Part One: Dazzle

On Tuesday morning we at OICPS learnt all about website marketing via an informative talk by Kimberley Manning, former fellow student, now the web marketing manager at OUP.

She shared some of her insights into site layout. Useful tips such as; the human eye tends to skim read web pages in an ‘F’ formation, searching out navigation and key information along the top and to the right hand side of a page. Bucketing similar information into groups and providing bitesize chunks of 20 words or less allows the reader to digest the facts without getting overwhelmed. Remember to ensure that your website works on different devices in this fast moving technological age.

And my favourite lesson: use appropriate dazzle.

Dazzle is all those fancy things that a website can do beyond provide pure copy. Today I added a bit of dazzle to the front page of my own charlieinabook site, by adding some widgets connecting to Goodreads, Twitter and LinkedIn. If I were to embed a video or animate my site, that would be dazzle.

Here, watch this fabulous trailer for an upcoming Christmas title 'When It Snows.'

Which leads me to the second part of today’s post; Mr. Fickling of David Fickling Books...

Part Two: 

As a sales assistant at The Book House I was aware of DFB through titles such as Kenneth Oppel’s ‘Half Brother’, the comic books series ‘The Phoenix’, and Nick Sharratt’s wonderful picture book ‘Socks.’ A DFB title was one that grabbed the eye and told a good story. I know that a DFB title has a strong reputation in the industry for quirky and original content. The publishing team based in Oxford picks twenty titles a year for their special attention. 

Their website is sleek, informative and efficient. It is also bright, playful and engaging. Ms. Manning would approve of their brilliant bucketing techniques.


I had been hoping to get an opportunity to gain work experience with the publishing firm. So when I heard that the SYP (Society of Young Publishers) would be holding their October speakers event with Mr. Fickling on Tuesday evening, I was very excited to attend.

Mr. Fickling dazzled in person.

With his famous red bowtie and buckets of personality that had the entire room clutching their sides in helpless giggles, we were let in to the secrets of the industry from his wonderful eye. “Have you ever read a book which changes you?” The theme was introduced as the publisher and the author. “The job of the publisher is to add energy.” There is no one method to build a relationship with an author, it is up to us as publishers to adapt and find a way to work to the best of our ability with each unique text. There have sometimes been mistakes made. Mr. Fickling told us an anecdote of a wrong path he’d taken with a title, and how he corrected it. A choreographed dance, using patience and collaboration to achieve the best end result.

“Authors are like the magical elves in a fairy story. I think of my mistakes as authors whom I’ve managed to scare out of the garden.”

As to how to find the unique content and great stories his publishing company is famous for commissioning, Mr Fickling had the following advice:

“Trust your own views and have the courage to make decisions based on them.”

We finished the evening with the three principles of publishing: “Legacy. Share. Autonomy.”

I returned home to discover an email, and will be interning for DFB in late January.

Cannot wait!!!


- Charlie