On Sunday 23 Feb, SCBWI peeps met at the beautiful Woollahra Library, Double Bay, for our first meeting of 2020. We heard insights from Rebecca McRitchie, Senior Editor from Scholastic Australia and were treated to a behind the scenes look of The School Magazine with the incredible Sue Murray. Here’s what happened.
Sue Murray and The School Magazine
Sue has been part of The School Magazine team for over 10 years. She has an education background, is a writer, largely for the education market, and an editor. Sue spoke about how she has fallen into jobs largely by putting herself out there and saying yes to opportunities, even if she’s never done it before, which is how she began writing plays. She has been approached by many groups to write plays about topics or work with groups to create plays, including a group from Canberra who asked her to write plays about youth mental health issues working with people who experienced issues with mental health.
Been on staff as a scriptwriter for a children’s theatre company and has advised teachers on teaching drama. Her whole career has been a combination of being creative, having a passion for education and saying yes to opportunities when she wasn’t sure she could do but said yes to anyway.
The School Magazine was created 1916, instigated by the Director of Education for NSW. It began as a very powerful magazine during wartime and spoke directly to kids. It was free for every government schoolchild in the state and is the longest running kids’ magazine in the world.
The 4 magazines are aimed at evolving reading abilities. They are, Countdown, Blast Off, Orbit and Touchdown. The website will tell you more about the audience those magazines are aimed at and how to submit. www.theschoolmagazine.com.au
Every issue includes a play, which the team are looking for at the moment, 2-3 poems, one piece of nonfiction and a longer article, comic serials, puzzles, like find-a-word.
There are 1.5 million issues of the magazine sent out each year.
Every submission is read by at least 2 people and the submission is online only.
Current practice and advice for submissions:
· Speak directly to the kids.
· The main character has to be at least aged 6. Kids read up so make the kids older than who the magazine audience.
· When it doubt cut it out. There is a 36 page limit so the pieces need to be succinct.
· Aim to inspire, intrigue, delight, engage, challenge, invite….don’t aim to teach kids a lesson.
· Present polished work.
· Don’t bother to write a cover letter.
· Don't say how much your grandkids love it. The words and pictures should work on their own.
· If the team like your work, you will get an automated on hold response, and they will pay on publication. Let them know if your piece will be published elsewhere.
· You will get a reprint fee if it is reprinted.
· Countdown and Blast Off need more submissions.
· Be quirky, individual be yourself.
· For non-fiction present something unique in a fun way.
· Illustrators: they are going to open their books in June so get your portfolio ready, they will announce on their social media. Show them you understand how to support and enrich text, which is different to being a beautiful illustrator. Show how well you draw kids and animals.
· They will be looking for comic serials in June.
· They are open now for quirky single cartoons.
There is also Buzzwords as another local magazine and Cricket which is a collection of magazine from the USA.
Rebecca McRitchie, Senior Editor, Scholastic Australia
How did you get started in publishing?
I studied English Literature at university when I applied for a job at a small publisher, and I worked for free while studying. While completing my Masters of publishing at Syd Uni, I met lots of real publishers, saw the printing process, and got a fuller idea of publishing from start to finish. After that, I was given a job at Scholastic where I’ve been for 7 years.
What’s the most exciting part of your role?
Meeting new creators. Being around creativity all the time. Kids books are super fun!
What are you looking for?
New voices. Every story has already been done….but your voice is what makes you stand out. Your voice makes your work original.
How can we submit to Scholastic?
Get an agent. This is a great way to get passed the gatekeepers. Publishers will always look at agents and what they are offering first. If you are not lucky in getting an agent, go to conferences….CBCA, CYA, SCBWI….be involved, meet publishing types, make your name known. With illustrators, Scholastic are always looking for more illustrators. They recently did a huge callout for illustrators and had over 2500 submissions and now have a huge database of illustrators. They will open it again in a year or so.
Is there a conflict in your role as an author and editor?
Only if I see an idea I was thinking of. The benefit of working with me is that she can see it from an editor’s and an author’s point of view.
How important are series at Scholastic?
Very. It plays into the notion that when kids want something they want it over and over again. They love an idea with a series potential. When you submit a MS make sure you include what could happen in subsequent books. They have lots of different sales channels to get the books out there…Australian Standing Orders, clubs and fairs and standard trade sales.
What would be a successful book run?
Scholastic wants to sell 400 copies a week. They want books that are going to sell high numbers. Traditional publishers are happy if a book sells 3000.
What do you look for in PB?
Strong female characters, musicality of rhyme, a good plot, 300-400 words. You have more of a chance if you have a fun humorous story, preferably with animal characters, series potential and short. We LOVE Rhyme. Personally, I love magic too.
What is the working relationship with creators?
The editor has to work with text but is also a project manager. She will ask the illustrator to come up with roughs with any specific instructions. The illustrator will go away and work and come back with editorial comments from the publisher and author, back and forth, until it’s done.
Why is it standard not to have author and illustrator meet?
What looks and reads well is subjective. We find everyone is happier when the work is mediated, which is my job. Sometimes the author will feel the illustrator is working for them, whereas it’s more of a collaborative process.
Do you enjoy getting author notes for the illustrator?
Yes. I take on board all the comments from the author and illustrator. I will even take comments from an author when the initial text is sent in. I am very interested in how the author sees the text coming to life. It may or may not get translated to the illustrator, but I likes to see the comments.
Do you like having a vision statement with a brief word count?
Yes, especially with minimal text. This is a good way to get an idea of what the author sees as the final book. The statement may not necessarily be taken into account. I look more for notes about concepts rather than specific detail.
Do you look for titles to go OS?
Not necessarily. We commission for the Australian market and we only pitch to the US once a year and not every title gets pitched. The US market is very different, so don’t write to the US market. The clubs and fairs are also very different.
What are the major genres you work in?
I like YA but we don’t do it. It goes with trends, because the emphasis is on clubs and fairs, we are largely in primary schools so we don’t really publish YA. I works with picture books like Macca the Alpaca, Cranky Bear, Hotdog, Weirdo, Ella Diaries, Ella and Olivia. Scholastic love the 6+ and 7+ age group Don’t do a lot of 8+ fiction. A lot of our market is age 3-8. We love board books, but will often only do them because they have been successful as a picture book first.
When acquiring a new book, do you have a say?
Yes and we will always fight for something we love. With a staff of over 400, there are a lot of opinions. It is hard to get a book over the line at times, but sometimes the clubs and fairs angle at scholastic will mean it won’t get chosen.
What is the common conflict between authors and illustrators?
The covers. An author may have an idea of a cover but the illustrator may have another idea, which is brilliant. It is often a matter of compromise.
What do you do to really highlight a book?
Sometimes clubs and fairs want an added component like a squishy toy, and that can sometimes increase or double sales. Often this all happens beyond the editing process.
Do you like to develop relationships with the same authors and illustrators?
Yes! We love to build relationships. And are keen to make all the creators happy and for them to have a good experience in the editing process.
How involved are you in marketing?
Not at all. The marketing team are there own beast. Sometimes the creators will have a relationship with Marketing and Sales, but not me.
What are the three imprints at Scholastic?
Omnibus Books has more of a literary feel. They don’t have a demand for a bigger sales run but they also win lots of awards.
Scholastic Press has a more educational appeal but also commercial.
Scholastic Australia is very commercial, clubs and fairs, only 24 page picture books about farts or poo.
Scholastic is very much into trends.
Submissions will get passed between the different imprints if a book will suit one imprint more than another. All submissions will go to a meeting with all teams present.
What is your word length suggestion?
Junior Fiction word length 3000-4000 words and will probably get cut with illustrations. Submit one completed book and a synopses for the rest of the series.
Age 8+ 5000-50000. It is a very varied word length. Stick to what feels best for the story.
Will Scholastic open their submission process online?
Probably not because of the volume of submissions we would receive. A lot of submissions come from agents, other publishers, published creators making recommendations etc.
Generally…
Every publishing house is different, you have to find the right one for you and your work.
Phew! At the end of the meeting we shared news of many wonderful new upcoming titles and there were many! Lots of titles, which began at SCBWI meetings, which we LOVE! We then headed to The Sheaf for a very chatty catch-up. Perfect!
