HappyLDNPress Author Stories

London Book Fair 2022 Talks to three illustrators about "Getting your Illustrations Published"

Donna Payne, Katie Knutton, and Juliette Rechatin will join the AOI’s Rachel Hill to talk about getting illustration published. The panellists will discuss how they find great new talent as well as nurturing relationships with artists.  The session will look at working processes, and touch on contracts and negotiation as well as trends in the industry. Practical examples and honest straight talking will make this an invaluable session for illustrators at every stage of their career.

Rachel Hill, CEO, The Association of Illustrators

Rachel Hill is the CEO at The Association of Illustrators, a not-for-profit organisation whose goal is to champion and celebrate the illustration industry. Through the AOI, Rachel support illustrators through events, awards, business resources and industry wide campaigning. With a previous background as a practising illustrator and illustration.

Donna Payne, Creative Director, Faber

Donna Payne is Creative Director at Faber & Faber, the UK's leading independent publisher. She heads up a small but brilliantly formed team that thrives on delivering consistently excellent work across a diverse range of genres, often taking inspiration from Faber's extensive design archive. Donna has art directed many leading illustrators and photographers, and regularly gives talks on Book Design at schools, universities and literary events. She is a passionate advocate for design mentoring, and a more inclusive design industry, discovering and nurturing new talent from all sectors of the creative community.

Katie Knutton, Design Manager Children's Non-fiction, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd

Katie Knutton is the Design Manager of Bloomsbury's award-winning Children's Non-fiction list. She works with acclaimed illustrators including Jenni Desmond, Catherine Rayner, and Joe Todd-Stanton as well as on Kate Pankhurst's bestselling Fantastically Great Women Series. She has 15 years' experience working in children's books for publishers including DK and Bonnier, joining the Bloomsbury Children's team in 2019.

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London Book Fair 2022 Talks to 3 independent women : The Tale of Three Start-ups
three independent small presses, all run by award-winning women, and all recent additions to the Children's publishing world. Having had different experiences and with different motivations and approaches to setting up by themselves, the panel will look at what it means and what it takes to set up a company in the current Children's environment, and what they've learned from this experience.

Rachel Williams, Publisher and Joint MD, Magic Cat Publishing

Rachel Williams studied literature before becoming an editor and publisher of children's books. She is also the creator of best-selling natural history and adventure books, including The Atlas of Adventure series and Illuminature, and more recently, Slow Down.

Jennifer Broom, Co-Managing Director, Magic Cat Publishing.

Jenny studied at the Slade before moving into children’s publishing. Early in her career she met Rachel Williams at Templar Publishing, helping her to launch Big Picture Press in 2013.

Abiola Bello, Author and Publisher, Hashtag Press

Abiola Bello is a Nigerian-British, prize-winning children’s/YA author from London. She's an advocate for diversity in books for young people and is the author of the award-winning fantasy series EMILY KNIGHT (EMILY KNIGHT I AM, EMILY KNIGHT I AM…AWAKENED and EMILY KNIGHT I AM BECOMING). EMILY KNIGHT I AM…AWAKENED was nominated for the CILIP’s Carnegie Award, won London’s BIG Read 2019, and was a finalist for the People’s Book Prize Best Children’s Book. 

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London Book Fair 2022 ; Talk with 3 authors about How to make a living from writing

The Society of Authors presents three authors about their experiences in writing and tell us about their journeys to getting published.

Writing is hard – and making it pay is even harder. An expert team from the Society of Authors will guide you on how to earn pennies and make them add up to pounds. What opportunities are great, and what are best avoided? How can you negotiate a better deal? From pursuing a portfolio career, the lowdown on competitions to tips on publishing deals, and where to get grants and funding. This is the talk for you if you don’t want to starve in a garret.

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, her debut epic fantasy novel, The Thief's Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy.  Abie Longstaff is the author of nearly 50 books for children (picture book to middle grade) including The Fairytale Hairdresser, The Magic Potions Shop, The Trapdoor Mysteries and How to Catch a Witch and a wide range of educational titles.

Abie Longstaff is the author of nearly 50 books for children (picture book to middle grade) including The Fairytale Hairdresser, The Magic Potions Shop, The Trapdoor Mysteries and How to Catch a Witch and a wide range of educational titles. Abie regularly appears at literary festivals and in schools.

Katrina Naomi is the winner of the 2021 Keats-Shelley Prize. Her latest project, Same But Different, a poetic collaboration. Katrina’s most recent collection, Wild Persistence, received an Authors’ Foundation award from the Society of Authors.

Thank you to Society of authors for bringing these interesting authors to the fair.

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