From Submission to 'On the Book Shelf'

Roving Reporter: Georgie Donaghey

From Submission to 'On the Book Shelf'

Sue Whiting the Publishing Manager for Walker Books Australia took us through the steps of publishing the picture book, The Croc and the Platypus.  The Croc and the Platypus is a retelling of the children's classic the, The Owl and the Pussycat.

Joining Sue from the Walker Books Australia team for an engaging, animated session were Mary Verney (Editor), Donna Rawlins (Art Director) and Simon Panagaris (Promotions Manager).

Jackie Hosking (Author) and Marjorie Crosby-Fairall discussed their personal experience on bringing their 'baby' to publication.  This is Jackie's first picture book.

The wait for a reply to manuscript submissions in sometimes agonisingly long.  Jackie Hosking can definitely vouch for this.  Even Sue was embarrassed to admit from submission to acceptance this manuscript took a year, normally five months is the turnaround time.

From the 'we want to publish your book' phone call the wheels were in motion and the journey well underway.  The Walker Books team already had had several meetings to discuss this manuscript before Jackie had even received that call.

Not traditionally a publisher of Australiana themed picture books, the Walker team embraced The Croc and the Platypus. 'It was a dream book to make.' Sue Whiting

 Donna had had her eyes set on Marjorie Crosby-Fairall after a previous workshop. From the initial sketches the team knew they were embarking on a very exciting project.

 How can we market this book?  Enter Simon Panagaris and the Marketing team.  The answer - a gorgeous plush crocodile that compliments the book.

 With lots of excited squeals re-enacted by Jackie Hosking throughout the session the audience were given a glimpse of the emotions and business that goes into publishing a picture book by a mainstream publisher. 

How to move 250,000 books in 6 months ... with Louise Park

Selling 250,000 books? It's not just a pipe-dream

Roving Reporter: Sandy Fussell    Speaker: Louise Park, publisher and best-selling author

Louise Park is a best-selling series author and has her own company, Paddle Pop Press which conceptualises, consults, packages and produces. http://www.paddlepoppress.com.au She also works with Susanna MacFarlane of Lemon Fizz media http://susannahmcfarlane.com/lemonfizz-media/ and together they form Pop and Fizz who published Boys vs Beast with Scholastic Australia.

Louise spoke about how important it is to her to have a large degree of control of the process.

She outlined a number of business models relating to series she has authored, pointing out that “every product has a different deal” and no negotiation is the same.

Louise authored the very successful School Zone Naplan Style Workbooks guides published by Hinkler. It was low royalty, low rrp but very high volume and distributed into stores such as Big W, Aldi, Coles, Officeworks. The titles were best sellers and School Zone Year 3 NAPLAN-style Numeracy made it onto the Sydney Morning Herald’s Top Ten Bestsellers list, the only book of its kind to ever do so. Other listees included Jamie Oliver and Jodi Picoult.

She spoke of the importance of developing partnerships with people with different skill sets. With Pop & Fizz, Louise is the author/illustrator and Susanna specialises in marketing and placement

Pop & Fizz published Boy vs Beast in conjunction with Scholastic. Responsibilities were divided for example Pop & Fizz assumed the marketing role to parents and schools and Scholastic managed point-of-sale.

Louise identified the following key drivers:

1         Identify opportunity

a.      Naplan

b.      Boy vs Beast first to be gaming based

2         Content and Cover

3         Timing

a.      Market

b.      Release Schedule

4        Sales and Marketing – “do not orphan your product”

 Louise spoke about the necessity to make some painful decisions for long term gain – allocating time to marketing at no charge (free school visits for first 20 schools to purchase) and free Skype sessions.

 Finally, Louise provided a summary of tips based on her experience

1. Don’t orphan your product once it goes to the printer. Follow through 
2. Sell your body to seed your product – give time for free
3. Pitch to publisher based on identified opportunity
4. Be prepared to give some books away
5. Discount to gain presence and critical mass
6. Leverage what you have
7. Love your publisher!

The Art of Pitching to Publishers

Roving Reporter: Ramona Davey

The Art Of Pitching To Publishers

T.he publishers

 A search on Google came up with two defintions of the word 'Pitching':

1. set (one's voice or a piece of music) at a particular pitch. "you've pitched the melody very high"

2. throw roughly or casually. "he crumpled the page up and pitched it into the fireplace"

From what I witnessed yesterday there was nothing rough or casual in the pitching from the handful of brave aspiring and published authors.

The authors were pitching to a panel of the following editors and publishers:  Zoe Walton - Publisher, Children's and Young Adult, Random House Australia / Holly Toohey - Publishing Executive, Random House Australia / Niki Horin - Managing Editor, Hardie Grant Egmont Australia / Claire Halifax - Managing Editor, Scholastic Australia / Lisa Berryman - Associate Publisher, Harper Collins Australia

There was much excitement, anticipation and nerves in the air. The pitches were fantastic by all participants. So much imagination and hard work. Once each author had pitched, the publishers would take it in turns to offer constructive criticism and feedback. Their comments included key terms regarding pitching

HOOK / SYNOPSIS / VOICE

Here are some of the positive and constructive comments they shared:

Zoe: We can all understand the shaky hands / Top marks for drama / There's always room in the market for a good fantasy. / ..never underestimate the importance of food in books for kids / ...just so unexpected, which was fantastic...captured our attention because it was so different

Holly: The synopsis could have a short line at the start - to hook you in / Nice and concise / Fantasy is not my forte / Fantasy plots are so intricate, that are probably the hardest to pitch / ...voice was funny and compassionate at the same time.

Niki: I enjoyed your multi-dimensional pitch / A strong backstory / ...liked adventure and issue based / A trilogy is hard to pitch / ...didn't need to tell us it's teen fiction, your writing speaks for itself.

Claire: I loved it...strong opening / I'd like to know in your pitch where the resolution is / relatable / ...wanted to know more about the worlds (fantasy)...paint more of a picture / I'm not an expert on fantasy / ...language was clean, clear and crisp.

Lisa: she liked...'cross-over books...brilliant as it will appeal to adults / arc of the story is so important, especially in trilogies / ...needed to see more of the world / ...loved the way (the pitcher) pitched up on a traditional myth / ...give sense of time and place when pitching something historical...was it based on fact?

 Zoe says: Most editors read the synopsis after the story.

 Niki says: Be careful not too mismatch... that aims at the wrong market.

 Holly asks: What's your hook? For example: Inception meets The Matrix. What do you bring to the table? One pitcher told us of her background in the police force which helped her with the topic of her intriguing and slightly dark novel.

 To conclude, a good pitch should consist of:

• your target age
• genre
• who you are marketing to
• a strong opening line/tag/hook