A Note to Publishers Part 2

 LINKING WITH THE AUTHOR

What publishers can do to promote their authors is to first establish a relationship: find out what the author wants or is willing to do, for example:

- school/ teacher talks

- author tours

- book fairs

- promotional tour

- sending press releases to local media

- presenting at festivals and/or conferences

- presenting at Staff development days, at Regional librarian meetings

- talking to local organisations, for example VIEW clubs

The publicist can ask the author to write articles for industry magazines e.g. Scan, Magpies, The Literature Base, Practically Primary, and Buzz Words about aspects of their new book. The author can also write articles that link with special days, (for example, I wrote a number of articles for Mental Health Week, which linked with my book Crossing the Line). Arrange a 'connection' with an excursion destination (once again curriculum link is great). The best example I can think of here is a big one (but it doesn't need to be this scale): to promote her book, author Felicity Pulman organised a tour of the Sydney Quarantine Station, the setting of her children’s book Ghost Boy. Make sure books are available for sale where the author is presenting. Link up with another of your publishing house’s authors in the same education area/topic: this way you can provide a 'dual package' to schools, i.e. two authors on one school visit.

Target special interest groups e.g. English as a Second Language or Gifted and Talented Children. Be aware of any special focus or special projects the Department of Education is undertaking – check their websites all the time and make contact at any opportunity. Be part of initiatives by education-related groups such as PETA - once again, check their websites all the time and make contact at any opportunity.

AUTHOR KITS

Publishers ought to prepare an author kit giving advice on where to go for publicity and how they can represent their book. One of the very best things publishers can do for an author is to arrange for him to speak briefly to their book reps. This gives the reps some anecdotal information and enthusiasm they can pass on to teacher-librarians. The reps can also give the TLs a sheet which provides information on how to contact the author for a school visit and where to look for teaching notes. On the day the author visits the publisher’s office to talk to the reps, it’s advisable to have the publicist and author sit together so that between the two of them they organise strategies for promoting the book. So often publicists work independently of authors: they usually don’t even get to meet those whose books they are paid to promote!

ONLINE NEWSLETTERS

Allen & Unwin and Walker Books Australia send me great online newsletters every month with details of their new titles, as well as news such as author tours, author interviews, competitions and giveaways. I often order books as a result of reading these newsletters. Ford Street also sends out a very good online newsletter promoting its recent titles.

TEACHER-LIBRARIANS

Teacher-librarians love to be signalled out for the work they do. Every region has a teacher-librarian network. In the Illawarra there is the Illawarra School Librarians Association with 120 members. It would be a worthwhile exercise once a term for a publishing house to offer a night highlighting: invite an author, illustrator or designer along to talk about their work. Offer refreshments and discounts. These nights can be held in bookshops and serve a double function, making the bookshop a profit and strengthening the bookseller/publisher bond.

Publishers could have a ‘meet the children’s authors’ event. This is an excellent way for a publishing house to get their writers to meet the general public (including teacher librarians and book reviewers, as well as the publishing house’s staff, e.g. marketing and publicity people).

BOOK LAUNCHES

It is a good idea to support book launches in schools. Richard Harland’s launched the Wolf Kingdom series in a Wollongong school. Richard organised a bookseller for the day who in turn contacted the school and sent order forms. On the day of the launch, 350 copies of the book were sold. At a second launch, at another school, 300 additional copies were sold.

If they are proactive, authors can sell a lot of books; therefore it seems sensible to allow them to do so, so make provision for this in their contracts. Give them the same discount as booksellers. When my author husband Bill Condon and I worked in schools as performers, Bill would speak in the morning to infants’ students, I’d speak to primary. At lunch-time we sold our remainders, usually for $3 or $5 each. It was not unusual to sell over $1,000 worth of books in the one hour lunch-time period.

FESTIVALS AND CONFERENCES

Publishers, encourage your authors to attend functions such as literary lunches, festivals and conferences. Publisher Paul Collins writes to each of his Ford Street authors asking them for a few lines of biography and then sent them collectively to all writers’ festivals around Australia saying these authors are willing to appear at your festival. There are dozens of festivals and conferences and all of them have large audiences.

Publishers, make a list of all of your children’s authors, along with their Send this list out to CBCA regional branches, conference & festival organisers, and regional teacher librarian groups indicating that the authors are available for visits. When authors speak at conferences, provide bookmarks and promotional material. Give the author a list of local media (and contact details) when they are to appear at a festival, conference or literary lunch. The author can organise interviews – or, if you are accompanying author, you can organise them

AUTHORS’ EMAILS & WEBSITES

When authors send emails, encourage them to have a signature on each email which includes not only contact information, but the name of their latest books. A website is an author’s best investment in PR as it is that author’s shop front. Hazel Edwards recommends that authors give added value. ‘Have ready on your web site well-labelled activities which relate to that book title. This can be sent to schools, libraries or bookshops which have newsletters or events to which the author is invited.’ Publishers, give teachers' notes or additional resources to the author to put on his website. Encourage the author to have a generic 'How to'' or “How this book was written”, a 1,000 word article for easy sending to interested parties. As well, have a hi-resolution author photo on your publishers’ web site so it can be down-loaded by festival organisers and save you e-mailing.

WHERE TO PRESENT YOUR AUTHORS:

· School visits or writing camps (talking to children)

· Staff development days

· Regional librarian meetings

· Conferences and festivals

· Articles in teaching industry magazines

· On your website

Will publishers implement many – or any – of these suggestions? Hard to tell. However, every author I’ve discussed these ideas with has been fully supportive, and a happy author ought to be one of the main aims of every publishing house.

Forthcoming Conferences and Events

If you attend any of the festivals and events listed below, feel free to contact me dibates@outlook.com with an article for this Writing for Children blog.

 

16-18th May, 2014 CBCA National Conference, Rex Hotel, 250 Northbourne Ave, Braddon, ACT 2612 Theme: Discovering National Treasures. See http://www.cbcaconference.org.au/ for further details.

21st May, 2014 National Simultaneous Storytime 11.00 AEDT. Too Many Elephants in This House by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Andrew Joyner. See https://www.alia.org.au/nss for further details.

30th May – 4th June, 2014 Asian Festival of Children’s Content, Singapore. See

www.afcc.com.sg for further details.

6-8th June, 2014 Sydney International Storytelling Conference. See

www.storytellersnsw.org.au for further details.

9th June, 2014. The Fairy Tale in Australia. Paddington Uniting Church, 395 Oxford St, Paddington, NSW. See http://www.faeriebard.com/conference-form/ for further details.

27th – 30th July, 2014. Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale, Gladstone, Queensland. See http://carnivale.gladstonerc.qld.gov.au for further details.

23rd August, 2014 Satellite Meeting of the IFLA Conference, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France. Theme: 15 to 20 year olds reading across the world: Why? Where? How?

10-13th September, 2014 34th IBBY International Congress, Mexico City, Mexico. Reading as an Inclusive Experience. See http://www.ibbycongress2014.org/ for further information.

28th – 30th September, 2014 Inaugural International Library Symposium at The Southport School,

Winchester Street, Southport, Queensland 4215. Theme: Embracing New Landscapes See www.thesouthportschool.com/ils for further information.

15th-17th October, 2014 South Island Children’s and Young Adults’ Librarians Conference, Balclutha, New Zealand. See http://www.cluthadc.govt.nz/LibraryConference.htm for further details.

31st October-1st November, 2014 Celebrate Reading National Conference, The Literature Centre, Old Prison Hospital, cnr Knutsford St and Hampton Rd, Fremantle, WA. See www.celebratereading.org.au for further information.

2015 IBBY Asian-Oceania Congress in Kuala Lumpur.

25-28th August, 2016 35th IBBY Congress, Auckland, New Zealand.

2018 36th IBBY Congress, Istanbul, Turkey.

 

CO-AUTHORING: ALL IN THE FAMILY

In 1980, three-year-old Trevelyan Edwards reported to his mother that the reason for rainwater leaking into his home was a hippopotamus on the roof eating cake. His mum, Hazel Edwards, subsequently wrote a picture book, There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, which has now sold more than a million copies in five languages, as well as in Braille and Auslan. The influence and support of family members on the writing and illustrating of children’s books is immeasurable, but how different is it when family members collaborate creatively?

Two writers living under the same roof has many advantages, as I well know, being a much-published children’s author married to another. Bill Condon and I began our writing collaboration at around the same time as we began our romantic relationship, about 30 years ago. Our first success was a collection of plays titled Madcap Cafe, followed soon after by a children’s adventure novel. Writing together resulted in many laughs - and occasional stressful moments. Nowadays, each of us has published over 100 books, only a few in collaboration. There are, however, many advantages of keeping our writing lives “all in the family.” Besides the extra joy at Lending Rights and royalty payment times – and learning of CBCA and other awards - these include sharing ideas, passing on publishing information and having another wordsmith on tap when you can’t quite think of that right word or plot twist. We both read our works in progress and offer encouragement. When one of us is deeply entrenched in the writing of a project, the other becomes the housekeeper, taking over the cooking, cleaning and shopping. Rarely do we have artistic differences: instead we are one another’s muse, writing confidante and publicist. It’s a great life keeping our writing all in the family!

Another creative partnership is that of Paul Collins and Meredith Costain. When they met in 1995, Paul wrote mostly for adults, although he had recently begun writing for fantasy collections for various publishers. Meredith had written or edited material solely for the children’s market: along with her editorial work on the Victorian Education Department school magazines and several reading schemes, her titles ranged from teenage popular fiction and non-fiction through to picture books and novelisation of the TV show Heartbreak High.

Their talents melded perfectly. Paul was conversant with the science fiction and fantasy genres, and Meredith was immersed in the world of children’s literature: between them, they knew most of Australia’s genre writers and illustrators. Together they created four boxed sets of speculative fiction anthologies and have since been responsible for introducing many adult writers into the children’s sphere. Meanwhile, their combined talents produced a couple of chapter books and 18 non-fiction books (complete with photo research). These days they collaborate less frequently, although both show their work to one another for proofreading and brainstorming. Like Bill and I, each has a separate study, phone line and internet connection.

Prize-winning children’s author Susanne Gervay recently worked in collaboration with her daughter Tory on a YA novel. Tory, Susanne says, was the driving force of That's Why I Wrote This Song (HarperCollins). She wanted me to collaborate with her to reveal the real issues facing girls growing up,’ Susanne says. 'Like many young people, Tory expresses her inner self through music. She writes lyrics and melody and has a beautiful voice, having studied music since she was five, playing the piano and trumpet, and performing in bands.’ 

Tory inspired the novel’s storyline set against the rock music scene, about four 16 to 17-year-old girls connected through music and their relationships with their fathers - the good, the bad and the ugly - and how their fathers affected their relationships with boys and each other.”

Tory wrote the rock lyrics that drive the text, lyrics for songs such as ‘Psycho Dad’ and ‘I Wanna Be Found’, which reveal character and theme, as well as pushing the narrative forward.

YA novelist Krista Bell's son Damien has illustrated some of her Lothian book covers. Damien, who is now an adult, has been a passionate and eclectic reader all of his life, Krista reports.

‘My first book was published when he was just four and so he's grown up taking for granted that his ma writes books and gets them published (in fact one for each year of his life so far, which seems fitting). When he was younger, as I wrote drafts of my stories, Damien would want to read them and at one point he was suddenly reading and editing my work faster than I could produce it.’

‘My major focus has been on junior fiction for readers of 10-14. When Damien was that age he was my major sounding board for all aspects of my work. When I'd finished a first draft, he would read and edit it, and he would sometimes also make plotting suggestions.

‘In 2002 when Helen Chamberlin, my publisher at Lothian Books, asked me to suggest who might do the chapter headings for my junior novel Who Cares? I was bold enough to suggest that my seventeen-year-old son, Damien Bell, might do them.

‘The upshot was that Damien did five chapter heading cameos. They were published in 2003 in my book which went on to win the 2004 Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature. So, technically, he's an award-winning illustrator! Since then Damien has drawn his mother’s entire junior novel chapter heading illustrations: four in total so far.

‘I'm a very lucky author to have such a talented illustrator with whom to collaborate,’ his proud mother says.

Another couple who work together on the creation of children’s books is historian-author Nadia Wheatley and her partner, artist Ken Searle, both of whom have enjoyed considerable success in their respective endeavours.

In 2005 Nadia and Ken worked with sixteen students from eight Sydney schools - some Muslim, some Catholic and some government. As well as experiencing the natural environment, the children were encouraged to learn about harmony between the traditional owners and the land, and to find harmony in friendship and collaboration. Going Bush, the resulting picture book, showcases some of the students' illustration and writing, linked together with art and design by Ken and a narrative by Nadia. Published in March 2007, the outstanding book – and their earlier co-produced book, Papunya School Book of Country and History - is testament to what can be achieved when a talented couple collaborates creatively.

The family partnerships mentioned here are not all that Australian children’s books have produced. There are, for example, the picture book collaborations between illustrator-designer Donna Rawlins and her husband, author Simon French. And who can overlook the amazing output that resulted in author Ruth Park working with her illustrator daughters Deborah and Kilmenny Niland to produce numerous award-winning picture books? It all goes to show that creativity does run in families and runs very well indeed.

The website of Dianne Bates and Bill Condon is www.enterprisingwords.com