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Inside the Australian book industry

Meet new Australian voices at the Intersection

‘Commentators have been pointing out for decades how the children’s and young adult literary landscape has largely reflected one dominant, homogeneous story of privilege and power that rarely admits “outsider” voices.’ So say Ambelin Kwaymullina and Rebecca Lim, editors of a new anthology from Fremantle Press intended to put 17 such ‘outsider’ voices front and centre.

Meet Me at the Intersection grew out of Kwaymullina and Lim’s Voices from the Intersection initiative, which was founded in 2016 to support emerging Australian ‘Own Voices’ YA and children’s authors, illustrators and publishing professionals. The anthology will feature stories and memoir from writers who identify as one or more of First Nations, people of colour, LGBTIA+ or living with disability. The co-editors said they prioritised two things when curating the anthology: ‘to treat each creator with respect and to edit their pieces with their specific background and intersectionalities in mind’ and ‘to recognise the impossibility of confining these unique narratives to hard-and-fast boxes’.

If you are looking for Australian voices you may not have heard about before, keep an eye out for the anthology, which is due for publication in Australia in September.

‘Outsider’ voices and the general theme of diversity were some of the main takeaways from last month’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair reported by Australian publishers, along with the rise (and possible market saturation) of feminist books and the ongoing popularity of middle grade. However, Magabala Books senior editor Margaret Whiskin said Bologna also reminded her that ‘Indigenous voices are still the marginalised of the marginalised’ and ‘there is a still a lot of education to be done’.

As part of that push to find more Indigenous voices, Magabala announced last month a new unpublished manuscript prize for junior fiction and YA. The $10,000 annual Daisy Utemorrah Award will be open to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, and the award is set to run over three years.

Matthia Dempsey
Editor
Think Australian
books.publishing@thorpe.com.au

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Rights sales and acquisitions

Walker Books acquires world rights to Croggon's first middle-grade fantasy title

Alison Croggon, author of the ‘Pellinor’ series for young adults, will publish her first middle-grade fantasy adventure title, The Threads of Magic, with Walker Books after the publisher acquired world rights in all languages from Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates, acting on behalf of Jenny Darling & Associates. The book follows a young pickpocket, Pip, who lives on his wits in the city of Clarel and finds himself in possession of a curious object: a dried-out heart that is trying to communicate with him. ‘The seed of the tale was the mystery around the Lost Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette,’ Croggon told Think Australian. ‘His heart was reportedly stolen and pickled by a doctor who did an autopsy. The Threads of Magic spiraled out of that central horrible image of a dead boy’s heart, but it very quickly took on a life of its own!’ Walker will publish the book in the UK in October 2019, and expects to release the book in Australia in December 2019.

Scholastic Australia has acquired middle-grade fiction trilogy ‘Girltopia’, written by former Hardie Grant Egmont publishing director Hilary Rogers, who previously commissioned the ‘Billie B Brown’, ‘Zac Power’ and ‘Go Girl’ series. Book one in the trilogy, Girltopia, marks Rogers’ debut as an author and is the first in an ongoing collaboration between Scholastic and book-creation venture Interrobang, which Rogers co-founded with writer Josh Lefers. The trilogy is set in a world run by girls after all the men and boys are struck down by a mysterious sleeping sickness, and the first book will be published in July 2018. The series is aimed at middle-grade readers who enjoy the ideas in high-concept YA novels.

Penguin Random House Australia’s Young Readers division has acquired 13-year-old slam poet Solli Raphael’s first book, a collection of slam poetry paired with inspirational writing techniques. Scheduled for publication on 3 September 2018, Limelight will include several introductory chapters on traditional poetry forms and slam poetry, as well as 30 original poems, and tips on writing and performing. It also includes the poem ‘Australian Air’, which became a viral video on Facebook, where it was viewed 3.5 million times. Raphael was the youngest winner of the Australian Poetry Slam in 2017, when he was 12 years old. His work deals with themes of sustainability and social equality.

Hardie Grant Egmont has sold US rights to debut author Jack Henseleit’s middle-grade fiction books The Witching Hours: The Vampire Knife and its sequel, The Troll Heart, to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Henseleit’s horror adventure books follow a young boy, Max, who is kidnapped by a vampire, and Max’s sister, Anna, who plunges into a world of monsters and magic to try to save him. The books have now sold into six territories, including Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil. Hardie Grant Egmont managing director Annabel Barker said the US publisher ‘snapped up this book almost immediately on submission’. ‘We have been so excited by the international response to Jack’s debut novel … We are so delighted for Jack, as a debut children’s novelist, to see this level of success so quickly,’ said Barker. Rights were acquired by Kheryn Callender, with Little, Brown to publish the first book in the US fall of 2018.

Other recent Australian rights sales and acquisitions include:

Picture books

The alc agency has sold Serbian rights to Rain May and Captain Daniel (Catharine Bateson, UQP) to Založba Skrivnost; Korean rights to Ash Dresses her Friends (Fu Wenzheng, New Frontier) to Dadam Education; Turkish rights to Time for School, Daddy (Dave Hackett, UQP) to Bilgi Yayınevi; and Norwegian rights to My Nanna is a Ninja, My Sister is a Superhero, My Brother is a Beast and My Pop is a Pirate (all Damon Young, illus by Peter Carnavas, UQP) to Egmont Kids Media.
Penguin Random House has sold North American rights and Japanese-language rights to No One Likes a Fart (Zoe Foster Blake, illus by Adam Nickel); Turkish-language rights to Go Go and the Silver Shoes (Jane Godwin, illus by Anna Walker) and Mr Huff (Anna Walker); French rights to Alexander’s Outing (Pamela Allen); and Czech-language rights to Lots (Marc Martin), which is the 15th rights sale for the title.
Walker Books Australia has sold US rights to Let Me Sleep, Sheep (Meg McKinlay, illus Leila Rudge) and Under the Southern Cross (Frané Lessac) to Candlewick Press; and UK rights to Dig, Dump, Roll (Sally Sutton, illus by Brian Lovelock) and Dinosaur Day Out (Sara Acton) to Walker Books Limited.

Younger readers and middle grade

Allen & Unwin has sold German rights to A Song Only I Can Hear (Barry Jonsberg) to Random House; Dutch rights to Lemniscaat; and Italian rights to Piemme/Mondadori.
Black Inc. has sold Turkish rights to How to Win a Nobel Prize (Barry Marshall & Lorna Hendry, illus by Bernard Caleo) to Epsilon at auction; Polish rights to Wydawnictwo Kobiece at auction; and UK and Japanese rights to Oneworld Publications and Wave Publishers, respectively.
Scholastic has sold simplified Chinese rights to The Bad Guys Episode Five (Aaron Blabey).

Young adult

Hardie Grant Egmont has sold North American rights to Amelia Westlake (Erin Gough) to Deirdre Jones at Little, Brown/Poppy.

For the latest Australian rights sales and acquisitions news, click here.

Award-winners

Townsend's 'Nevermoor' wins locally and in the UK

Profile

Introducing Quirky Kid Publishing

Quirky Kid Publishing—the publishing arm of Sydney- and Wollongong-based child psychology clinic The Quirky Kid Clinic—has won the Educational Initiatives Award at the 2018 London Book Fair (LBF) International Excellence Awards. Chosen from a shortlist of three, Quirky Kid won the award for Basecamp, an anxiety program for seven- to 12-year-olds in which children embark on a journey through a fictional Australian national park to help explore their emotions. Basecamp was also shortlisted for the Educational Learning Resources Award. Quirky Kid co-founder and publisher Leonardo Rocker spoke to Think Australian.

What makes Quirky Kid Publishing unique?

Quirky Kid is published with purpose. Our titles aim to engage young readers and parents towards improving specific social, emotional or behaviour skills or challenges. We also publish tools for the school and clinic settings. These tools aim to help teachers or counsellors to engage young people to talk about feelings and emotions. As we are based within a child psychology clinic, we know a lot about child development and our subject area, so, according to our readers and users, our titles are useful and effective.

How did the publishing arm come about?

When we started 10 years ago, we could not find the kind of titles we were looking for. The ones we knew about did not quite do the trick. Sometimes they did not have the graphics quality we were after; sometimes they missed the point in relation to how to talk to kids about feelings or emotions. So we thought, ‘Why not make our own?’ Our co-founder Dr Kimberley O’Brien used illustrations during her counselling and had created a tool. We pitched it to a publisher but they wanted to pay us with 10 free copies. Not a good deal, so we set out to make the first product ourselves, with great success.

How many books/other publications does Quirky Kid publish each year—and what kinds?

Currently, we work toward publishing two titles a year. The last three years have been a little different as we have focused on publishing two educational resources, like Basecamp. These resources have the characteristics of children’s books but they also have a lot more included, such as games, cards, stickers and an entire pedagogical process, so they take a lot longer to produce. They also include lesson plans, manuals and websites. They are resource-heavy, but the result is an incredible tool. We are now starting a new stage and you should expect some interesting trade titles coming up!

How has the international reception been at both London and Bologna?

The international reception could not have been better. We met with global publishers, government representatives, private organisations and parents. There is a clear understanding of the importance of the resources Quirky Kid produces, and we received a lot of encouragement and feedback that we are on the right path. Our titles are not conventional for trade publishing; however, more specialised publishers are really engaged with us and are considering utilising our materials globally.

Have you sold international rights to your publications?

We definitely export and have some distribution agreements, but we have not yet sold rights. Since returning from Bologna, however, we have four strong leads and we hope to announce something soon.

Which titles have been most successful overseas?

The tools geared towards the schools market have sold over 6000 copies worldwide. I think the last time we checked, we had 20 organisations using our tools from Japan to Brazil. The Face It cards and the Tell Me a Story cards are the bestsellers.

Which title or author on your list do you believe deserves bigger recognition overseas?

It is hard to play favourites but our latest resource Basecamp by Dr Kathryn Berry and Lisa Diebold has to be up there. It’s a very special resource, and I don’t think we will ever publish something like it again.

Have you acquired the rights to publish any overseas titles in Australia?

Yes, we have acquired the rights to five titles already. The first one, How to Be a Friend, was written by a big name: Marc Brown, the creator of the American cartoon series Arthur. From there we have been focusing on translations, as they offer a bigger opportunity since we’re based in Australia. We’re considering and negotiating on three titles since returning from Bologna and London.

What will you publish next (that may appeal to international publishers)?

We are working on two new titles within our niche market. We have learned a lot since visiting the book fairs for the last four to five years; we feel we know our place in the market—and that we can create unique titles that will be loved by readers and traders.

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