SCBWI - London Professional Series: EGMONT UK

I attended SCBWI’s first 2011 ‘London Professional Series’ event yesterday, where two commissioning editors for EGMONT UK were in the room, facing a packed audience as the event was sold out. Of course, the talk started with a brief introduction.

ALI DOUGAL, Commissioning Editor for Fiction, studied English for her first degree, prior to undertaking a postgraduate degree in publishing at Oxford Brookes University. She seemed to have always known that she wanted to be in publishing one day, and started her career with Penguin. Over time, she realized that it was children’s fiction that she really wanted to be in, and successfully made the transition into this particular area of the market, inevitably ending up at Egmont UK, the biggest children's book publisher in the UK. Does she write herself? No. It is an ambition, though she believes she may be better in editing than writing.

Unlike his colleague, PETE MARLEY, Commissioning Editor for Picture Books, wanted to be a psychologist at first, having studied the subject in Nottingham. It was there that he realized psychology wasn’t his thing, and publishing was where he ended up in. He worked for ‘Top That!’ - a small publisher, eventually moving on to Egmont UK. Does he write? He wrote for their Winnie the Pooh range before, as well as ‘Pitstop’ - a satirical take on glossy mags.

EGMONT was founded 130 years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has since grown into a global company with offices in London, New York and Sydney. All the offices are known to work closely together. Apart from being the biggest children’s book publisher in the UK, they are also the No. 1 character publisher in the UK (more about this later).

The company is passionate about getting children to read, finding new authors and illustrators, as well as supporting the existing authors on their list. Egmont has also been a frontrunner in ethical publishing, making sure that the paper they use come from ethical sources.

There are three divisions within Egmont UK:

• Magazines (e.g.: TOXIC magazine)
• Licensed Characters (e.g.: Bob the Builder)
• Egmont Press (Fiction Books; age range: 0-YA/Crossover; few adult books)

Pete Marley mentioned that their list has grown considerably in recent years, and now also includes baby & toddler sections as well as gift books, which they believe will help them move away from the over-reliance on Waterstones, since independent small bookstores are on the decline.

On the fiction side, Ali Dougal said that the market continues to be dominated by PARANORMAL fiction, though ‘Twilight’ has finally seen a dip in demand. Those that are hot right now are about Angels and Werewolves. Books that have made it into film are big sellers for publishers, such as the Percy Jackson series. For Egmont, the biggest revenue continues to come from their backlist which includes Enid Blyton books (now being repackaged). Due to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film ‘Warhorse’, the corresponding book has become Egmont’s very own ‘Twilight’. Other successful books are the ‘GONE’ series, as well as ‘Mr. Gum’ and ‘Lemony Snicket’. Egmont has obviously also followed the Paranormal trend, as seen through ‘The Dark Divine’ books (by Bree Despain). They also have an Angel trilogy coming out.

According to both the editors, there is room at Egmont for anything. In fact, although the market has gone down recently, Egmont Fiction grew.

DIGITAL PUBLISHING is growing as there are an increasing number of platforms out there. From 2008 to 2009, digital publishing has doubled, and this trend is set to continue. In 2009, Egmont created interactive eBooks for the Nintendo DS console. From this year on, all their new books will be simultaneously available as a physical book and in eBook format.

Since eReaders have monochrome displays, they weren’t really applicable to picture books. However, this changed with the arrival of the iPad. 'Sir Charlie Stinky Socks' became the first Picture Book App Egmont has produced. A question remains as to how you would be able to market it in the Apple App Store where it is drowned by all the other apps. They are also expensive to make, and when asked whether the financial investment is viable, the answer is: not yet. But at least, Egmont is exploring the possibilities for the future.

What came next was the golden question all writers would like to get answered: WHAT ARE EDITORS LOOKING FOR?

Pete Marley said that in picture books, there are no strict rules, but the stories should be memorable, and ideally, there would be iconic characters that appeal to children. The text should also be concise - which is the hardest thing for authors to do. They should be a maximum of 800 words in length, with a lyrical script. Of course, in longer fiction, there should be more elaborate descriptions compared to picture books, where the author has to trust the illustration to do the rest.

When Pete Marley looks at submissions, he views them from the eyes of a child. Is it easy to understand? Is it accessible enough? There should be a story arc, and a strong ending. He loves to see a type symmetry in the story, e.g. when the beginning and the end happen in the same place (it would be like the story has come round full circle). The text does not have to rhyme - in fact, it is more difficult to sell it internationally if it rhymes.

Ali Dougal looks at all genres, whether it be science fiction or romance. She looks at all books aimed at kids aged 5+ all the way to YA/Crossover books. She pointed out that VOICE is important. MASS MARKET APPEAL would be great. She is also looking for books that are GENUINELY FUNNY. Basically, she has to love the book so much, that she can champion it in-house. If a book is promising, but not to her taste, she will pass it on to a colleague who may fall in love with it. There has to be a strong sense that the author can continue to grow. Naturally, it would be great if the book has CLEAR COMMERCIAL APPEAL. The BONUS would be if the book has international appeal and can be sold into 5-6 countries. This would mean that the author can earn out their advance, and Egmont could regain its investment. The icing on the cake would be if a film option or the screen rights could be sold.

Pete Marley informed us that submissions to him generally come from agents or via email from the occasional person who has found his email address somewhere. Novelty books generally arrive via post. With illustrators, he often asks them to come in with their scrapbooks. He likes to see them, because sometimes, there may be a character in there that has slipped away because they were thought not to be good enough. Once, for example, an illustration of a toddler in a ladybird costume in one such scrapbook captured his attention.

Egmont UK does take UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS. Please send these to: childrensreader@euk.egmont.com

Submissions to the above email address would usually go to a junior reader, and if that reader is excited, they will pass it on to an editor. It has to be said that this process is much slower than submissions that come via agents who not only will pass it on to the editor directly, but probably know which editor to pass it on to (like everyone else, the taste of editors differ from one to another).

You don’t need to submit your CV with your submission. Only relevant details matter, e.g. writing competitions, courses, etc. With unsolicited longer fiction, the submission guidelines are as follows: Three chapters and an outline. Or, if available, the whole manuscript.

Ideally, it would be great to be able to say: this novel is xxx meets xxx. Some of the memorable submissions that are to be published this year are:

• Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick: it is fast-paced, and a book Ali couldn’t stop talking about. It’s ‘Ferris Bueller’ meets ‘Kill Bill’. It tapped into a trend - the YA action thriller. There was something new about it, and there was film interest (screen rights now sold in auction to Paramount).
• The Shadowing: a series for 10+ kids that is really well thought through and spreads across 5 books. There is a gap in the market for kids’ horror books - with the one outstanding top author being Darren Shan.
• Dear Dylan: a coming of age story written in email format. The voice felt so real, it took Ali Dougal back to being 16. It also had a good PR story. The author, Siobhan Curham, self-published the novel after turning a two-book deal with a publisher down before, and went on to win the Young Minds Book Award. She also runs workshops with young people, so Egmont knew she would be good at public events.

Authors have to remember that although Egmont is an editorially-led publishing house, the editors still have to attend an acquisitions meeting where he or she will have to convince the sales, marketing and finance teams to buy the book. These departments would think about whether the book could become a bestseller or be a prize winner. An important thing to market your book well is a good hook. You need to find a one-line bullet point to describe your book (e.g. the ‘xxx meets xxx’ scenario).

Once the book goes through, they will start asking questions. When is the best time to publish? Who are the competitors? Peg against them or not? Prize-winning potential? Package/Branding? Advertising - bill boards or word of mouth?

The process is similar in picture books, though it will have a longer lead time. About 12-18 months prior to publishing, they usually take them to book fairs first.

What else could be said about being noticed... oh yeah... DON’T RELY ON GIMMICKS. They will eat the chocolate you send them, but it will have no impact on your submission.

Book Review: FORBIDDEN by Tabitha Suzuma

Lochan is a painfully shy, but gorgeous 17-year-old boy. He also happens to be intelligent, and have a seemingly bright future ahead of him, which could propel him out of the council estate he grew up in. Maya is a sweet 16-year-old, pretty and also wiser than the average girl with a background similar to Lochan.

They could be like any other protagonist of a YA novel, you might say. They meet, encounter a few obstacles along the way, and end up together at some point - preferably at a high school prom somewhere - simply because they are perfect for one another. But what if I told you they may be more similar than you want them to be, for Lochan and Maya have more in common than their background. They share the same DNA. Yes, they are siblings.

That's right. With FORBIDDEN, Tabitha Suzuma has touched exactly what the book's title would suggest. That taboo subject of incest. And whilst we may all say "Ew!" at that, and pull a face of disgust, the author has accomplished something I cannot fully grasp yet. She lets you care about Lochan and Maya in a way that makes you start wishing that theirs was a case of mistaken identity at birth, that they are not siblings at all... and they could be together, and may I even say - without sounding corny - live "happily ever after". The author really lets you get into their heads, and you know that what is between them is, plain and simply, love. It's just that it's not the love siblings should feel for one another.

Whilst reading this book, I was seriously torn between what I knew to be wrong and what I felt was right for the two characters in question. It was an emotional roller coaster ride where you know where it's heading, and something in you wants to scream NO, and yet something else tells you... WHY? And that's the power this book has. It takes something that you know to be truly wrong, and scarily, makes you understand it - to the point where you almost think it's right.

Of course, a book like this can only have a heart-breaking ending. You must be prepared to grab a tissue or two, but I wasn't quite prepared for the ending of this particular book. Because without spoiling it entirely, its ending is devastating. I found myself wondering about Lochan and Maya, as if they did exist somewhere in London at one point in time. That's how much I started to feel for them. I thought about the environment they grew up in - having a drunkard as a mother who frequently abandons them at will, making her two elder children carry the responsibility of running the household with three younger siblings in tow. This pretty much sets the scene for what is to come, and I found myself openly hating the mother, because secretly, I believe that if she had been a better mother, these two characters I cared for would have been completely fine... probably not falling for each other like the ultimate star-crossed lovers.

I bow my head to Tabitha Suzuma. This book was nothing, but a masterpiece.

FORBIDDEN will be out in the U.S. in June 2011.

A Teenager... Again!

When I read Nick Cross' blog about being stuck in Teenage Town despite being a full-blown adult, I had to smile. I have spent the last few days in the house I grew up in. You know, with Christmas and all that, my husband and I spent nearly two weeks in my childhood home in Germany, back with my parents and my younger brother. Being amongst my childhood stuff toys and playing video games with my brother (Dance Central on Xbox 360 + Kinect, if you care about such things), I could swear I turned into a teen again! The clock probably started rewinding in England already, when it snowed several inches a week or two before Christmas. I looked out of the door, and saw this white carpet that lay before me. I was still in what I would call my 'lounge wear' - old tracksuit bottoms & old sweater - and slowly made my way out into the fresh snow. I suddenly had the urge to feel the white powder beneath my sneakers with my bare feet. I looked toward my left and then, my right. No one there. So I did it! If you want to know how it felt like... it really was like stepping on ice-cold powder. Like you've put a bottle of baby powder into the freezer over night, spread it onto the floor, and stepped onto it. That's how it was. I told my husband what I did, and he started wondering about my mental age. Around that time, I was also mistaken by a lady (who was probably not more than ten years older than me) for a girl who goes to school with her son. Yes, school!!! Then, the bus driver suddenly started offering me a 'student ticket'...

But obviously, the years of being a teen would be nothing without those outbursts all teenagers are prone to have. Mostly, including those people also known as PARENTS. The last few days of being a teenager once more certainly gave me a taste of that - in the form of a full-blown argument with my dad. This involved accidentally smashing a glass pane when I slammed a door... something that never happened when I was a teen, but which my brother told me happened to him, too, a few years ago, after an argument with none other than our dad. So this will be the second time the glass pane needs to be replaced!!! Seriously, I am not really a glass smashing person, but as my brother (and my mother!) will testify, our dad has the innate ability to annoy even the most placid monk in Tibet.

Being a teenager is often about raw emotions - when even the tiniest thing that happens in life seems to matter. Maybe because a lot of what happens to teenagers is new and fresh - unlike for adults who may have gone through the same thing a dozen times in their lives. A classmate at school may say something unpleasant that makes you cry; or a boy you like may know nothing of your existence; or you may not be as pretty, intelligent and witty as you would like to be, and hate yourself for being the person you are instead... the list could go on and on. Sometimes, I get asked why teenage books are so dramatic - why the girl may constantly pine for that one boy. Well, just imagine yourself back at high school. There are a limited amount of boys there - and for a teen, high school often equates to 'the world'. Now, imagine that the one and only boy you end up liking does not like you. And again, remember - school is 'the world'. No one else is there that you like. Bummer.

Adults do tend to tell you about life after school. Especially when you are in need of major consolation. But you've never experienced that life yourself, so it would be difficult to associate with what they say at all. They can tell you about how the 'Miss Popular' of their year pretty much peaked at high school. As a teen, that may be difficult to imagine. They will tell you there are more boys out there in the world. Well, what if they all turn out not to like you, like the boy in your school? They will tell you that being bookish is not all that bad. Ha! Tell that to the poor boys of The Big Bang Theory.

But there are good things about being a teenager, too. Your future (defined as adulthood) is still unknown to you. Anything can happen - just like at the beginning of a novel, when the plot is still unclear. When you do fall in love, you do so with all your heart. Like in George Michael's cheesy Christmas ballad, you really give your heart away... because your heart is as yet untouched by all the hurt that may come along the way.

This is the reason I love writing for teenagers. The purity of emotions that graces the pages of YA novels attract me like no other. And high stakes really do exist in everyday life within a teenage mind, simply because (unlike in our grown-up world) everything... even the tiniest detail... matters.