Champions League Dreams

My annual visit ties in with the three Year 6 classes (that’s 10/11-year-olds to you and me) doing a project on biography and autobiography. So the kids are armed and ready with a veritable mountain of questions about the process of writing and publishing biographies. The school has a solitary male member of the teaching staff, so I think the teachers like the fact that all the kids (but especially the boys) get another (hopefully) positive male role model in school for the afternoon. With experience, I’ve learnt to take in a selection of books that appeal to both genders. So it’s JLS, One Direction and Justin Bieber for the girls; Lewis Hamilton, Usain Bolt and Steven Gerrard for the boys. What’s lovely is seeing the kids pass the books around, treasuring them like precious stones, really lapping up the pages – particularly the photos. Who says kids have switched off from the printed page in this brave new digital era?! I was asked some predictable, and some quite unpredictable, questions. Who’s the most famous author you’ve worked with? Can you take me to meet One Direction? Can Stevie G get me a game at Anfield? Why can’t famous people write their own books? Who’s the nicest celebrity you’ve worked with? What’s the bestselling book you’ve published? Have you ever cancelled a book because it was so bad? How much do ghost writers get paid? I did a 40-minute session with each of the three classes: the kids were amazingly attentive and engaged. This year I decided to veer off at a tangent and explain a little about the printing process. Wow, did that light the blue touch paper. It turns out from the dozens of thank-you letters I received, that the kids were fascinated that at the printer each page of a book isn’t printed separately. They couldn’t get their heads around the fact that many pages are printed on one large sheet, then folded to make a section of the book. I suggested to the head teacher that maybe she could organise a trip to a printing press. I’m going to ask our production team to get me a large printed sheet, with all the different pages imposed upon on it, then send it into the school for the kids’ inspection. That’ll blow their minds! (I remember being taught about “page imposition” on my post-grad publishing course. My head hurts just thinking about it!) Not only did I get a decent box of chocolates and countless lovely thank-you letters from the kids, I also put the afternoon to good use by carrying out my very own piece of consumer research. I had all 75 kids fill out a questionnaire to try to find out which up-and-coming stars of the pop music world are floating the boats of these particular 10/11-year-olds from Hertfordshire. If you’re interested, Rihanna and Rita Ora came out top! I’m putting my name down for taking the Rihanna meeting. Wowser!

After a mere 10 days based on the 11th floor of 338 Euston Road, I was off on my first trip – the Jonathan Ball sales conference in South Africa. After manically trying to memorise the Headline list and get a grasp of what worked and what didn’t I was off. No sooner had I landed, then my presentation had begun. It started in a slightly different way to other presentations I had done – with a musical interlude, courtesy of Frederic Chopin. His 'Raindrop' prelude is an integral part of Barbara Mutch's new novel, The Housemaid's Daughter, and to give everyone a taste of what this fabulous novel was really about I wanted to set the mood (which was vital considering the book's setting and the author's heritage!). It worked a treat and the novel went down a storm with booksellers. Boom. I was back in London and after what felt like 5 minutes (but which was actually 6 days) myself and the rest of the team were at Earl’s Court for the London Book Fair. I rarely remember anything about fairs – they are one long stream of appointments, one merging into another – but looking back I do remember something – Underwater Dogs! With buckets of enthusiasm we managed to squeeze this title (despite some very bemused looks) into the European wholesaler catalogues. Over three and a half thousand hardbacks in Europe later, those bemused faces are now beaming! In September, Europe beckoned. The train from Milan to Bern to Zurich to Stuttgart was an incredibly pleasant one and took me back to my college days. The 2013 Headline fiction list went down a storm with many customers reporting it as the strongest ever line up. I certainly agree. Our exciting new Tinder Press titles got everyone's pulses racing. After some tasty fiction successes in 2012 (I need to mention Shadow of Night here, Deborah Harkness' fantastic follow up to the international bestselling A Discovery of Witches which sold like the clappers in Europe last year), people definitely take note when Headline fiction is being talked about. After a quick reshuffle of our department, I wasn't heading back to South Africa towards the end of the year, but instead off to India for the first time. I wasn't sure what to expect but what I did notice was the greenery! It’s an odd thing to notice I know, but being a country girl maybe not surprising. Also, the food was spicy. I know – my observation may not set the world alight but there's spice and then there's Indian spice. If you know what's good for you then you won't get the two mixed up. Next year will be an exciting year for India. Not only will we have book 5 of the bestselling Empire of the Moghul series but also the long awaited novel from Lavanya Sankaran, The Hope Factory. It’s a good time to have taken over India if these books are anything to go by. So, all in all, a busy year; lots of travels, lots of books and lots more exciting new stories to tell... the ones I can remember anyway.