A Day in the Life of a Sales & Marketing Assistant

Hello, Cait here. You may remember me from such posts as ‘On Reading Books in School‘, ‘Bologna Children’s Book Fair: The Walking Tour‘ and ‘My First Month in Publishing‘. And, as you may already know from shameless self-promotion, I am the Sales & Marketing Assistant here at Hot Key Books!

Since the majority of SPAM has been here since the beginning of January, it seemed like time for an update. You’d be amazed how much a person’s role can change and develop over the course of a few months, but as Hot Key grows that is exactly what has happened to my job – in the best, most exciting way. We started with no (physical) books, no spreadsheets, no reps… and now we have our first dues, and have just completed our first ever (extra super special) proof mailing!

Our beautiful launch list proofs, ready for mailing!

So I suppose that a typical day in the life of a sales & marketing assistant, as any will probably tell you, doesn’t really exist. (I know! The title! I lied!). Anyway, no monotonous Office Spacemoments here! One day might be spent updating spreadsheets, creating promotional materials on accursed Word and making sure our lovely regional reps have everything they need (Graham – yes of course I will print you whatever you need and post it to you, but it’s nice that you ask so politely each time), while the next I’ll be chatting to an author in the morning whilst making them a terrible pot of coffee (sorry Gareth) and running to the Natural History Museum in the afternoon to pick up something special for a pitch. SPAM are here to make sure our books are exciting you as much as us, so seeing our marketing plans translate into the day to day is usually pretty exhilarating.

The mailing of our launch list was something we thought about for ages, as we wanted it to be really special. Weeks of waiting for proofs, narrowing down mailing lists and sourcing keys, tissue paper, ribbon and the right sized boxes was totally worth it to see the finished result all stacked up ready for the postman.

So here they are, all 9 titles in their glory, wrapped up in (Hot Key red) tissue paper and nestled alongside a key and a rather lovely letter from Sarah O and Kate. There are some rather empty shelves in the office now, waiting for the next set to arrive!

And if you’re wondering how it happened…

So, tell me, why do you want to get into children’s publishing?

This was the question that was asked of me at my first internship about a year ago. Feeling a little put on the spot, I gave the horribly cringe-worthy response that, given my lack of experience, it seemed like it would be “easier” to work on children’s books in an editorial capacity than it would to work on adults’ books.  The truth is I wasn’t entirely sure which direction I wanted to take at that point and I had only just re-entered the world of children’s fiction after a decade’s hiatus (give or take), so I wasn’t really qualified to comment on their relative “easiness”. Now, a year on, having read a few more children’s books and coming to the end of my internship at Hot Key, I feel like the time is ripe to re-examine my feelings about children’s fiction and reasons for wanting to pursue a career in children’s publishing via the almighty forum for online discussion that is… the blog.

Perhaps the most significant thing I’ve discovered is how innovative children’s books often are. To illustrate by example, of the books I have read recently, one featured a teenage girl with a blood condition with potentially global ramifications (The Truth about Celia Frost by Paula Rawsthorne), another posed the argument “What if God was a horny teenage boy?” (There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff), and, finally, the most recent involved a young boy’s ability to shrink planets that throws the entire solar system into turmoil (an upcoming Hot Key title, the “50% fun” SHRUNK! by F.R. Hitchcock).

I believe this innovation is due to the fact that children’s books are less tethered to the need for realism, given that children are simply not the harsh critics adults are (this isn’t to suggest that realism is completely disregarded; I strongly believe that a story will only be engaging if the protagonist has a kernel of truth in their makeup, is relatable in some way) and so there is the opportunity for wildly imaginative stories. In this sense, if pure escapism is what you’re after, I feel that children’s books are hard to beat!

Another thing I’ve discovered is that there is an appealing levity or sense of fun underlying  children’s fiction which keeps those pages turning. Adult fiction, on the other hand, with its meditations on mortality, explorations of the darker side of human nature and literary pretensions, has the potential to become tiresome. That isn’t to say that serious subjects aren’t grappled with in children’s books (they often deal with divorce, emotionally detached parents and, towards the young adults’ end of the spectrum, sex and death), but they never bog the story down.

One final thing I’ve discovered is that a good children’s book never preaches values to its audience. To the contrary, children’s books often celebrate the fact that children will be mischievous; it is simply part of the joy of being young (See the Penny Dreadful series by Joanna Nadin, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townshend, Spud by John van de Ruit).

In this way children’s books leave the task of instilling values in children to the realms of parenting and school education and instead focus on telling a gripping story.

Since I began doing internships at children’s publishers I’ve encountered quite a few adults who read children’s fiction not only frequently but exclusively, and, for the reasons I’ve set out above, it’s very easy to see the appeal. Perhaps the phrase “children’s fiction” is too restrictive a tag (suggestions anyone?).

So as my internship at Hot Key draws to a close, I now return to the original question. Why do I want to work in children’s publishing? Well, it’s the opportunity to read a wide range of imaginative submissions from authors. It’s the fact that it gives you a front-row seat in terms of all the exciting new releases in the world of children’s publishing. It’s the wonderfully varied tasks that are performed from day to day (during my stint at Hot Key I spent a good couple of hours gluing miniature covers onto miniature books, which, for the record, was quite therapeutic, really).

It’s the fact that there’s an infinite supply of chocolate by the kitchen sink. And, finally, it’s the prospect of working alongside people whose passion for their jobs, in my experience, is unmatched.

Now it’s your turn, Hot Key blog visitors – tell me, what do you love about children’s books?

Tips for Young Writers

Hello to all our lovely new blog visitors. Here’s a quick vlog I’ve put together for those of you considering entering The Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize competition. Entries close 31 May! All T&Cs here.

Early Starts, Profits, and Belonging to a Corporation

As you may or may not know, Hot Key Books is one rather lovely branch of a great big Bonnier Publishing tree. On Tuesday, I got to find out just how ruddy enormous that tree is, as I went to an internal profit training workshop in Chichester with my homeboyz Cait Davies, Kate Manning, Tristan Hanks and Jan Bielecki.

Looking like a stern and slightly baffled version of my grandmother whilst learning about profit. Yes, on a golf course – where else?

I had never been to Chichester before, so as you can imagine, I was excited about this trip. However, I was less excited about my 5am alarm. Yes, 5AM! Turns out Chichester is quite a way away, and as anyone will tell you I do not start fully functioning until well after 9am. I have to admit, I was worried I would fall asleep during the workshop.

BUT. As as it turns out, profit is actually very interesting. And it is especially interesting when you are part of an aformentioned big publishing tree, as you can see how your profits and your colleagues’ profits are an integral part of a much bigger picture – indeed, for Bonnier, a €3,000,000,000 picture. Yes, THREE BILLION EUROS. Even I had no idea we were that big!

And I know what you’re thinking. Surely a corporation worth three billion euros has fat-cat board members who sit upon piles of money, laughing whilst they destory the rainforest using their endangered-species animal slaves – like all global corporations do, obviously.

But fear not, for Bonnier is no such thing. Indeed, we couldn’t be less like that if we tried. Consider this:

• Bonnier has been a family-run business since its beginnings as a humble bookstore in 1804 – Jonas Bonnier remains in charge of us all.
• We definitely don’t destory the environment (although I would like a monkey-servant) – Bonnier have a committed Green Team, in Sweden the printing presses are powered using low emission electricity and all of Hot Keys’ books use FSC approved paper – and we recycle EVERYTHING in the office.
• Bonnier certainly don’t sit on their profits – Hot Key Books is proof of that! We’re a start-up publishing company established during a time when people think it’s crazy to do so.  And we’re not the only one – Bonnier are constantly investing in new companies and expanding their current ones.
• Unlike some other corporate giants, Bonnier is very much an equal opportunities employer. In the UK alone, 71% of Bonnier  employees are women – and that includes Managing Directors and Chief Operating Officers.
• Everyone is lovely. Honest.

So as you can see, if you’re going to work for a vast, corporate, global empire, Bonnier is the one to go for. It feels so exciting to be a part of such a dynamic and diverse company, and I feel nothing but privileged to be its employee. If you’d like to read more about Bonnier have a look here: http://www.bonnier.com/en

(Can I please have my monkey-servant now Jonas?)

The SPAM guide to publishing

I’ve just got back into the office after 3 days at London Book Fair which was fabulous, brightly lit and rather huge.  You spend a lot of time meeting lots of people and explaining, as a start-up, exactly who you are, what you’ve done and what you’re planning to do.

As Ms Benton wonderfully showed in her Children’s Innovation Stand talk – how to launch a publishing company via social media – we’ve actually achieved a lot in the 6 or so months Hot Key has been in existence.  (It was a brilliant talk, showing our first tweet through to our first order – I got rather teary – and if you missed it we’ll post it online tomorrow.)

The SPAM team mainly started on Jan 3rd (with Meg joining a couple of months later) and setting up the list from our point of view can basically be split into 3 areas.  And they are…

Us!  We needed to tell people who Hot Key were before we did anything else, so we set up the blog, expanded our twitter efforts, set up the newsletter, contacted everyone we knew from previous publishing lives, dragged people in for coffee, made them admire our offices, met the Sales Team, pestered the Sales Team, played the Sales Team videos, got onto panels at LBF, organised publicity in the trade press,  basically shouted a lot so that people knew we were here.

Then, the incredibly fun bit, logistics!!  We needed to set up systems.  You may want to look away now, but in case you’re interested: find Export partners to carry our books around the world, get an ISBN prefix, get our titles loaded on to systems so the bibliographic details feed to the customers and our warehouse, get a warehouse, set budgets, create AIs,  set up trading terms with customers, get sales material ready, work out when we need things by (the lovely critical path), set up every spreadsheet you will ever need to record promotions, spend, contacts, forecasts, print runs, people’s birthdays…

And the third area, most importantly is the BOOKS! We needed to contact and meet all our authors, read everything, draw up marketing plans, work out our PR strategies, talk with the authors about plans, order proofs, get appointments for book fairs, present at book fairs, fill in grids for Christmas promotions, and basically talk about our fabulous launch list to EVERYONE.

So, that’s the last 3-ish months. We’re quite tired, but very happy.  Still got to send out all the proofs, sign off our first print run, pester our authors more, descend on more customers and then PUBLISH.

All I can say is, spreadsheets are very useful.  So is having a fabulous team who are creative but efficient and having the rest of the HK / Bonnier gang and authors to provide all the brilliant books, the amazing jackets, the actual physical copies, the budgeting system (yeah, thanks Jon), the orders and the cake.

Here’s to the rest of the year.  Anyone fancy a holiday?

Building the Hot Key list – a Publisher’s view

What could be more exciting than building a list from scratch? It’s every editor’s fantasy: to hand pick books and authors you love, that you have lots of room for, and getting to acquire a dream list!

But of course, there is more to it than that! There is a business to run, and a profit to be made, a future to be forged. As much as it is a thrilling task, it’s a daunting one. What makes it so much fun is knowing that Sarah Odedina, myself and Sara O’Connor share a passion and a vision: to cherish our authors and to work with them to produce outstanding books for all reading tastes and abilities for 9 year-old readers and upward. This shared vision makes the acquisitions process feel like so much less hard work!

As an editor, my tastes are varied, perhaps eclectic. Commercial, literary – any genre – but all submissions need to move me and take me somewhere, and with people I want to know about. There are some crucial ingredients: good – hopefully great – writing. A cracking story. Characters I must believe in. Our launch list delivers on each of these ingredients and encompasses the funny, the silly, the sinister, the sexy and the exciting – sometimes all in one book!  At Hot Key we will only go on building more books and authors of this calibre into our programme for the years ahead. We are buying books that children (and some adults) and we ourselves want to read. We are enthusiastically carrying the torch for the physical as well as the electronic book reading experience. Treasuring tradition, but embracing the new with our exciting digital plans. And our books are already causing a stir, as the trade is waking up to what we have to offer on our launch list, and our competitors look enviously at our beautiful collector’s bound proofs (a numbered one  for every book!)

It’s so great to be looking forward optimistically, excitedly and creatively to our backlist as well as our formidable front list.

And we have some surprises up our sleeves too. Projects that will showcase how creatively and laterally we think as a team and position Hot Key Books as innovators and influencers in Children’s fiction.

Enjoy, and watch this space!

Emily

Attempting to draw the graphic novel

I’ve always enjoyed that magic combination of words and pictures to create stories and express ideas – from baby books to picture books and graphic novels for adults. Graphic novels and comics can explain complicated political, cultural and existential ideas with ease, making them accessible and a pleasure to read. Some of the best graphic novels tell apparently untellable stories through this medium like Maus and Palestine (read our read and tell blog posts about these).

As a child I read whatever I could get my hands on – including the weekly Dandy and Beano and the frankly weird Rupert the Bear annuals. I was never really into superheroes or fantasy, preferring explorations of domestic worlds or periods of history.

As an adult, favourites include Persepolis Marjane Satrapi, Fluffy by Simone Lia and Kikki de Montparnasse by José-Louis Bocquet and Catel Muller. I’ve been following the Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize (bit of a mouthful!) which has been discovering and publishing the graphic writers and artists of the future for the past five years. One of my favourites is Paint by Viviane McDermid and you can see a selection of Brian Talbot’s favourites here.

For the past ten years whilst working with children’s books, I’ve watched with interest the UK’s attempt to adopt comics and graphic novels for itself. There is a strong culture of comics in countries like the USA, Japan, France and Italy but they have never taken off to same degree here. Projects like David Fickling’s DFC may not have been a commercial success but have highlighted rising stars in children’s graphic illustration like Sarah McIntyre, Dave Shelton and Kate Brown. Take a peek at this new comic creation, The Phoenix.

In the UK we have a strange snobbish attitude to comics, indeed to using pictures with text in general. It’s often viewed as childish and children are encouraged to leave illustrated books behind as quickly as possible in favour of text heavy chapter books. Images are seen as less important to our children’s education to words, something Anthony Browne, the former Children’s Laureate highlighted, urging the need for visual literacy in our education system. It’s well documented that people spend longer reading the information panels next to art works in galleries than the artwork itself.

So, I’d been enjoying reading all these comics, when one day as I was cycling to work mulling over little stories from my childhood, it suddenly struck me – I should do a graphic novel class! That would be the perfect way to tell my stories. With the help of Paul Gravett’s fantastic website, full of useful links about graphic novels and comics, I came across this jewel of a class – Drawing the Graphic Novel with Emily Haworth-Booth at the Prince’s Drawing School. This was the only class I found that was open to people of all drawing abilities which was encouraging, and the Princes Drawing School promised to be an ‘experience of art college for all’. Very appealing since I hadn’t done any drawing for over 15 years so I was beyond ‘rusty’ at drawing.

And what a great course it’s been – I couldn’t recommend it more. Taught by Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize runner–up Emily Haworth-Booth (check out her brilliant comic here) and full of enthusiastic students (including Timothy Bird who does a great weekly comic strip for his website) with a range of technical abilities, styles and ideas.

Emily has taken us step by step through the process of putting a comic together through drawing and writing exercises, access to a life model, looking at other graphic novel artists as well as lots of great advice and feedback on our work. I’ve learned so many great tips – using thumb nails that you can cut out and move about to create your story, using different types of transitions and the inking process. I’ve got so much out of the course – at the very least two hours every week to myself to draw … a rare thing with a full time job and kids. I had forgotten how rewarding (and frustrating) it is to create something.

Thumbnails for final project

We’ve all been working towards a final project that we’ll discuss this evening – here’s my first attempt at drawing the graphic novel. As you can see I still have so much to learn and am sorely tempted to do the follow-up class in the summer term where you can further develop your projects and skills. I might just do it!

Blog on blog(s) – part four

A few weeks ago we started a series of blogs on our friends in the book blogging community – asking them how they got into it, why they like it, and tips for anyone wanting to start out now. We’ve had some lovely responses – if you missed them you can read parts one to three below:

Blog on blog(s) – part one

Blog on blog(s) – part two

Blog on blog(s) – part three

And we’re not done! Today, Liz from My Favourite Books steps up to the chair to talk you through her experiences…

Name & blog
I am Liz de Jager and I run My Favourite Books

Tell us a bit about your blog…
MFB started as a blog about genre fiction.  Then, it grew from there when I started getting followers and people engaged with me as a reader and reviewer and publishers liked what we were doing.  More stuff came in, not just genre books, and I threw open the gates and now we review everything we can get our paws on.  I’ve got a great team on MFB – I dragged my husband, Mark in on the reviews and my friend and fellow-aspiring writer, Sarah Bryars.  Together the three of us chomp our way through books by the hundreds.  And we love it.

How did you start blogging?
I wanted a place to remember the books I was reading.  As an aspiring writer I thought (laughs hysterically) that this would be a good way to suss out how it’s done.  I took Stephen King’s advice to “read read read” more literally than he intended, maybe.  What started as something personal and unformed and vague for myself grew into something much bigger and now I can’t remember a time when my reading was without wanting to tell the world about this awesome book, or this annoying character, or this hot boy or this kick-ass girl, or this mad adventure the main characters are going on.

What’s the best thing about blogging?
The thing about blogging, once it’s in the blood, nothing gets it out.  The perks of becoming a blogger: meeting people you admire in the industry, not just your favourite author but editors you have heard great things about; being able to help bring a new debut author to the attention of readers who may not have even thought about picking up that title because they don’t know about them;  finding older gems and reminding the world about them; showcasing diverse voices and new genres to try and taking part in mad book challenges but also, being treated with respect by publishers, by people who value our input and respect our integrity.

What kind of books are you most excited about reviewing?
I love both adult fiction and YA and MG [Middle Grade] titles.  I have a soft spot for picture books too and have started a combined blog for picture books with two others.  It’s called The Picturebook Shelf and it’s early days yet, but we are hoping it’s going to rock even more than it does now.  I love falling in love characters.  I don’t care if they are hot teen boys or girls or strong adult protagonists.  Character and voice sells a book for me.

Who are your favourite authors?
Where do I start? Joe Abercrombie for fantasy, along with George RR Martin and David Eddings.  For urban fantasy I would say Kate Griffin, Mike Carey, Kevin Hearne, Ben Aronovich.  Contemporary fiction my vote goes to Julie Cohen, Katie Fforde, Sarah Addison Allen and Ali Shaw.   In crime, Jack Reacher rules my heart, so it’s Lee Childs and Duane Swierczynski and Tess Gerritson all the way. For YA and MG titles: Frances Hardinge, Cornelia Funke, Sarwat Chadda, Sarah Singleton,  Tanya Byrne (everyone MUST read Heart Shaped Bruise the second it comes out), Courtney Summers, Marie Lu, Kirsten Cashore, Will Hill, Garth Nix, Anthony McGowan, Sam Enthoven, Graham Marks, Bill Hussey, Karen Mahoney…and I’ll stop there for now or we’ll be here all day.

Do you have any advice for new bloggers?
Don’t do it for the free books.  Be honest with yourself: when those books start coming in, realise that it is going to put masses of pressure on you.  And you are going to suffer guilt.  You will be utterly miserable and yes, it may be nice at first, seeing all those pretty books on your shelf but you will have to review them.  And you have to fit that in around your homework, your housework, the kids, your husband or your wife.  Start small, buy the books you love to read, review them and be honest.  Let your own voice develop and grow and then totally own it.  Follow other blogs, see what you like and don’t like.  Find us on Twitter and talk to us.  Don’t ask us to link to your site if you’ve got 3 books up for review.  It sounds arrogant, but really, build your site first.  Show the community and publishers that you’re not just after free books.  We’ve seen enough flash-in-the-pan blogs come and go. Get to know how things work.  Don’t beg for books online on Twitter or Facebook.  Go out and buy them or better yet, get them from the library. Never stop reading and telling people about the amazing, annoying, disturbing, beautiful, romantic, adventure packed books you are reading.  If you shout loud enough, they’ll listen.  

Thanks so much Liz and all the bloggers who have taken part so far!

We’d love to invite any book bloggers who would be interested, to guest post for us occasionally about a subject of their choice – if you fancy it email me here!

Sarah

The Highs and Lows of Publishing

I hope you’ve all seen the news about our exciting recent acquisitions: a pre-empt and four pre-Bologna deals. We are so happy with how our list is coming along, with so many fantastically talented authors, new and more established. And the response via Twitter yesterday was fabulous!

We’ve even outstripped all the erotica publishing news to be the most read story on Book Trade Info…

But it isn’t all highs, and so before you think we are all smug, let me say that it doesn’t always work out that way. Did you know that publishers get rejected, too?

Like all publishers, we’ve done elaborate videos, sent crazy packages, delivered detailed (beautiful prezi) presentations… spent hours pouring over the content of the manuscripts to pick out just the right details to impress and ultimately not landed the deal.

But that’s just the way publishing goes. All the publishers who pitch think they are the best home for the author, and it can’t help but feel a little like being dumped when it ends up not to be you.

Our lovely intern Amy (@amyocelot) said it best when she said publishing is hard.

And so, we’ll wait and watch for announcements about who got those wonderful projects that we wanted and will wish all the best for those ones that got away.

(P.S. I didn’t actually get to offer on it because it was whisked off the table by those clever editors at Simon & Schuster last year, but one of these amazing books that you’ve got to read when it comes out is The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda. It’s awesome.)

We’d love to hear from any other publishing folk about their ones that got away…

Dear Auntie Hot Key….

Dear Auntie Becca,

I love YA books and can’t get enough. But it’s really hard to know what to read next. Where can I turn?

Addicted in Aylesbury

(A great blog post on incredible libraries here)

Dear Addicted,

I’m so glad to hear that you enjoy reading YA books, the great thing about reading is that you will never get to the end of all the wonderful books that there are to read!

Do you have a particular genre that you enjoy reading? Maybe science fiction is your bag. Perhaps it’s horror, paranormal romance or even historical fiction. Whatever you enjoy there is sure to be something else out there to float your boat! If you do have a particular genre that you enjoy you could try exploring fan forums online like this if you love Hunger Games, or maybe this if Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging is your favourite book ever! Really good bookshops will have staff that have an exceptional knowledge of all that is great and upcoming!

Another way to discover YA fiction is to explore social networking sites; Twitter and Facebook both promise links to an infinitesimal number of fan sites, forums and blogs to help you keep up to date with the latest YA offerings. Peruse the numerous blogs that are out there – Liz at http://myfavouritebooks.blogspot.com/ really knows her stuff, but there are hundreds of people with a passion for YA fiction that are just waiting to share their knowledge and passion with you, like Jo at onceuponabookcase and Jesse at  books4teens.co.uk.

‘GoodReads’ is a great place to keep up to date with what’s up and coming and what’s popular with other readers. Even better there are often competitions to win pre-release copies of great books. You can be our editorial director’s friend on Goodreads by finding her here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5305869-sara.

The internet is a great place to start exploring the billions of books that are out there, but don’t forget about face to face discussion. You could join a reading group with your local library http://www.chatterbooks.org.uk/, or attend a literary festival where authors attend in abundance, Bath Children’s Festival and Edinburgh are fantastic places to start and really get to know the YA scene. Alternatively there are great newsletters, exlusive releases, brilliant offers and much more from http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/. Whenever I want a new project I turn to the Guardian – they know their stuff!

My favourite place is a bookshop; whether they’re tiny indies cramped with new and exciting debut works, or spacious high street shops where I can peruse glossy hardbacks, cappuccino in hand – click here for Total Wow  A recent rain-shower forced me to seek shelter in an Oxfam bookshop, where there were wonderful staff and books in plenty. There are hundreds of people out there just waiting to share their passion for all things YA – so the best thing you can do is start a conversation!

So start one now! What have YOU just read that you loved?

I just read Tales from Outer Suburbia by my favourite author Shaun Tan and it was awesome.

Hope that helps!

Auntie Becca