The full programme fir this year’s Bath Children’s Literature Festival is now online.
This year’s directors are the fesitval’s founders, Gill and John McLay.
Festival Fees – Should Authors Be Paid?
Freya North responds to a previous Bookseller opinion piece:
John McLay, founder of the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature, wrote in The Bookseller that when authors attend a festival, they enter into an unspoken agreement with the festival organisers not to expect a fee. I don’t agree.
McLay, who founded the Bath Children’s Festival, said this at the end of July:
The punters often pay to attend, but authors rarely get a cut of the box office. Should they? Where does all that money go? Is someone getting rich at authors’ expense?
Well, it’s not me. I founded the Telegraph Bath Festival of Children’s Literature in 2007 with my wife, using all of our own money. We staged nearly 150 public and school events over 10 days and attracted more than 10,000 paying visitors. And we lost a hefty five-figure sum. Ouch. By the time we handed over the festival to Bath Festivals to run three years later, we were in better financial shape—but still nursed a loss from that disastrous first year.
When authors attend a festival, I think they enter into an unspoken agreement with the festival organisers. We, the festival organisers, go to great expense and effort to stage a festival which will provide you with a platform on which to meet your public and sell your books. We take the box office receipts to help pay for our own expertise, venue hire, staging, lighting, sound, brochure, ticket services, refreshments, staffing, security, insurance, publicity and marketing. We spend a year planning it, worrying about every unsold seat and missing PowerPoint presentation, and live it for duration of the event itself.
In a nutshell McLay was putting forward the time-for-exposure rationale. He finished off: “These author/reader experiences plant seeds in the minds of the book buyers of tomorrow, and that is worth a lot in my opinion. We’re all part of the festival deal. It’s great that festivals exist, but they need everyone to only take the piece of the financial pie that rewards their contribution.”
North takes exception to this. In her response she writes:
For an author, festival events require a great deal of preparation, thought, generosity and often nerves. The festival fee we pay all our authors is not big bucks, but it is there as a token of our appreciation and respect. They are all hardworking, entertaining and inspiring professionals who simply ought to be remunerated for the service they provide. As Maureen says: “You don’t ask your local butcher for a free steak. Authors are giving their time and energy and yes they do benefit but why shouldn’t they? They deserve to feel valued.”
For more information about the Hertford Children’s Festival visit the excellent website:
via A fair shout for fees | The Bookseller.
The Hertford Children’s Book Festival website was designed by Shy Studios:
Bath bookshop band puts novel storylines to music
Link leads to short, recommended BBC News video in which The Bookshop Band and the owner of Mr Bs Emporium of Reading Delights bookshop in Bath (one of our first indie bookshop features) are interviewed:
A bookshop in Bath has started entertaining customers by getting a band to create songs based on storylines of their books.
The Bookshop Band was formed to write songs for special writer events – all based around the story of the book.
via BBC News – Bath bookshop band puts novel storylines to music.
2014 Bath Children’s Literature Festival programme announced
2014 Bath Children’s Literature Festival programme announced
Holly Black, Michael Morpurgo, Mal Peet, Liz Pichon and Henry Winkler are just a few of the star authors who will be at the 2014 Telegraph Bath Children’s Literature Festival
via 2014 Bath Children’s Literature Festival programme announced – Telegraph.
Cathy Cassidy, Henry Winkler, Liz Pichon and Michael Rosen are among the star names who will be at the Telegraph Bath Children’s Literature Festival, the largest dedicated children’s book festival in the UK, which is now in its eighth year.
The festival, which runs from Friday 26 September until Sunday 5 October 2014, will feature more than 100 events, with David Almond returning as guest artistic director for a second year. “Children’s Literature lies at the beating heart of our culture. It is where stories have their start and where literary culture is constantly renewed,” said Almond, whose new YA novel, A Song for Ella Grey, is out in October.
Among other celebrated authors and illustrators who will be appearing are Holly Black, John Burningham, Lauren Child, Cassandra Clare, Mandy Coe, Cornelia Funke, Simon Mayo, Dave McKean, Michael Morpurgo, Mal Peet, Jonny Duddle, Debi Gliori and Dave McKean.
Bath Festival – Children as Readers, Children As Writers
In the chandelier-hung Aix-en-Provence Room of Bath’s Guildhall there was a good pre-conference buzz as delegates registered for the day. David Almond was chatting with Councillor Neil Butters and a group of Young Curators was on hand in their bright green festival T-shirts.
Becky Swain, from Arvon‘s Farringdon office, introduced herself to me, and we were talking about her work for the Foundation when Belinda Kidd, Chief Executive of Bath Festivals, spotting the big camera round my neck, asked if I could take a group shot of Councillor Neil Buttters and the team of student volunteers.
Then it was down to the Brunswick Room (scene of the previous day’s Information Book Award) for the keynote speech by David Almond.
Louise Betts, whose official soubriquet is ‘Learning & Participation Manager’ (who thought that one up?) for Bath Festivals, welcomed everyone and encouraged people to share thoughts about the day on Twitter, Instagram and Flickr. You can filter Twitter for festival-related tweets using the hashtag #bathkidslitconf.
David Almond, dressed mainly in black, brought a small rucksack (also black) on stage, took from it some half a dozen books, which he placed on a low table, and an A4 notebook, which he placed on the metallic lectern. We had spoken briefly the previous evening, at the close of the Information Book Awards, and he had told me he was going home to prepare his speech.
He opened his notebook and there was a flash of handwriting, but whatever notes he had made or revisited the previous night were used only as prompts and guidance. His theme was creativity and his message that all children are naturally creative. When people ask him, “When did you start writing?” he thinks the question all adults should be asked is “When did you STOP writing?”
Speaking about Skellig, the debut novel that established him as a uniquely talented fictional voice fifteen years ago (an anniversary edition has just been published) he said that writing it had been like entering a world – an almost mythic world – that already existed.
He talked about the ‘elemental magic of words’ and the fact that we are ‘wired for stories’.
He cannot abide the negative ‘rubbish’ spouted by newspapers and politicians to denigrate the young people of today. Whenever he goes into schools – and he gave examples of two very different schools, one an independent girls school just outside Bath, the other a challenging school on the outskirts of Newcastle – and asks a group of children who their favourite writers are, hands always go up. Children are reading. Children are writing.
Listening to him speak in that mellifluously entrancing Newcastle accent, I couldn’t help thinking of that different but no less distinctive voice of Seamus Heaney, a voice that is with us no more. So let us enjoy and give thanks for the voice of David Almond, no less poetic, every bit as elemental.
Being Guest Artistic Director of a books festival may be sufficient distraction from his main work as a storyteller, but at some point in the future David Almond must surely and deservedly become our Children’s Laureate.
I stayed on for the pre-lunch break-out session led by Rachel from the Young Poets Network, a web-based programme of writing ‘challenges’ for those aged 11-25 (but with a special focus on the 13-19 age group).
An infectious enthusiast, she talked us though how the challenges are constructed and what the participation levels are like, which are impressive, and largely down, I should imagine to Rachel’s own very active management of the webspace.
As Louise had kindly let me attend the conference with a Press Pass, rather than as an official delegate, I spent the middle part of the day away from the Guildhall.
A good hotel breakfast meant that I could survive on a light lunch of almond croissant & coffee upstairs at Bertinet and a quick meetup with the man behind the 50th Anniversary Edition Mellotronics M3000. The conversation ended up being mainly about how hard it is for creatives (in any field) to make a satisfactory income from their endeavours. It’s always good to have a face-to-face meetup with someone who has been an online friend (in this case via Flickr and the Raspberry Pi Synthesizer blog) for years.
After that is was off to Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. I had been warned that life in the shop was manic, with students back in town and ordering books for their new modules, and that I would need to be unobtrusive. I had replied that I was good at being unobtrusive, and then promptly knocked a pile of books near the till onto the floor with my bag immediately on arrival. I did better at lurking unobtrusively after that – at least I like to think so. I will be presenting a feature about the shop and my visit next week, which will be Number 2 in the series which began with my visit to Newham bookshop.
It’s only now that I look at the detailed breakdown of the day that I see I should have made sure I was back at the Guildhall in time for a plenary session with David Almond, Miranda McKearney and Julia Hall. I’m sorry I missed that.
I did get back in time for the final breakout session (held in Bath’s modern central library, which shares an entrance with Waitrose), run by the Bath Festivals Write Team, a poetry-based project that is focused on students who like to keep a low profile and remain invisible. The (at times uncomfortably interactive) session was led by Emma Metcalf, the project co-ordinator, and poet, Mandy Coe.
Now I’m off to enjoy National Poetry Day on the South Bank…
McFly Reading At Bath – one of first major appearances as authors
McFly Authors At The Bath Festival This Evening
Both Fletcher, McFly’s lead singer, and Poynter, the band’s bassist, admit that “not every parent wants to read their children stories about poo”, but they point out, ahead of their appearance at Bath Festival of Children’s Literature that it’s what “kids want to hear stories about”. “It’s so much more nerve wrecking reading in front of kids than performing in front of a few thousand people”, Poynter says, “because kids don’t lie. If they don’t find it funny they just won’t laugh. With children you can tell on their faces if the stuff isn’t good.”
The pair will be doing two readings and a question and answer session with their readers at the festival, one of their first major public appearances as authors. Tousle-haired, tattooed and in their late twenties, Poynter and Fletcher admit that they don’t fit the children’s author type; but they know what they are up against. Fletcher explains, “We had absolutely no experience in writing kids books and its a very competitive market. But we buy and read a lot of children’s books and we felt that our books had that extra something we were always looking for.”
Poynter has another view: “Julia Donaldson [creator of the bestselling Gruffalo franchise] is the One Direction of the children’s book world. We’re hot on her heels.”
via McFly: ‘Reading to children is far more nerve-wracking than performing to thousands’ – Telegraph.
Geekathon In Bath
After the Information Book Award presentations (see previous post) I stayed on for the Holly Smale and Andy Robb event. The two authors were in conversation with Jo Nadin.
In keeping with their recent books, they were both being presented as ‘geeky’ authors, or rather authors who had been geeky when children.
In Andy Robb’s case this was because he had been into role-playing games before it had been cool to be so. There’s a rather good promotional video on his website:
From the way Holly Smale spoke, her own childhood geekiness came across as an uncool thirst after knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
She was an avid reader and her mother read adult poetry and fiction to her from an early age. She completed her first rhyming couplet poem – “The Unicorn” – at the age of seven, and still brings it out at dinner parties, as demonstrated (just an extract) in this clip.
The session started with both authors reading a passage from one of their recent titles. After that the hour passed very quickly, with Robb and Smale chatting freely about their life and work, ably prompted and facilitated by Jo Nadin.
I confess I haven’t yet read either of Andy Robb’s Geek books, Geekhood or Geekhood: Mission Impossible. I have read and enjoyed the first Geek Girl, but not the sequel. What Smale brings out very well in the first novel is the double-edged predicament faced by her main character – ridiculed and bullied at school, then becoming the target of more spiteful abuse in the modelling world, which in turn compounds the comments she receives from her school peers. And this, by all accounts, is based on her own experiences as a gangly 15-year-old ‘spotted’ by a fashion scout. She has managed to transform the painful experiences and memories of her own adolescence into an entertaining and diverting read, light enough for children as young as 7 years old (she told us her readership goes this young).
Bath Children’s Books Festival / SLA – Information Book Award 2013 – The Winners
Information Book Award 2013
It was a pleasure to be at the Bath Children’s Books Festival on Monday evening for the announcement of the winners of the Information Book Award, and in particular to hear the judges speak about each and every one of the ten shortlisted titles (scan down for the full shortlist).
Chris Brown, introducing the award, explained how important it is to recognise and encourage this area of children’s book publishing.
Marlene Johnson, Managing Director of Hachette Children’s Books, congratulated the authors and illustrators, saying, ‘We are very proud to be sponsoring the SLA Information Book Award, and to support school libraries and students. The SLA Award is a great way to highlight the variety and excellence of the books and information out there, and, through the feedback of students and librarians, to celebrate the very best exponents of the art of creating great non-fiction.’
In addition to Chris Brown, the judges included Jayne Gould, Lesley Martin, Sally Dring and Lucy Forrester.
Both overall winners came from the oldest of the three age categories. The ‘children’s choice’ winner, 100 Ways For Every Girl To Look & Feel Fantastic by beauty journalist Alice Hart-Davis and her young collaborator Beth Hindhaugh was praised for its commonsense approach and for its avoidance of a cliched fashion-model approach to the subject. Hart-Davis produced a similar title for Walker Books (Be Beautiful) in 2009 with Beth’s older sister. At the drinks reception afterwards, David Almond was keen to get a copy signed for his 15-year-old daughter.
The choice of the adult judges was the ‘Gastronaut’ Stefan Gates‘s Incredible Edibles, described on the SLA website as “a mad-scientist approach to food and nutrition, engagingly enthusiastic and delightfully batty. It works as both cookery book and popular science, a surprising but very effective combination.” As is indicated in the video clip (see above) an important aspect to the book is the bright design and colourful photography (by Stefan Gates’s wife). After the presentation Stefan performed a 5-minute mini-show which involved showering the audience in marshmallows and then telling us that the pink ones had bug blood in them.
Winners in each category were:
Under 7s – Just Ducks by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino, ISBN 9781406327397 Walker Books
7-12 – Incredible Edibles by Stefan Gates, illustrated by Georgia Glynn ISBN 9781406339062 Walker Books
12-16 – Discover More: Technology by Clive Gifford ISBN 9781407131566 Scholastic Children’s Books
Overall Winner – Incredible Edibles by Stefan Gates, illustrated by Georgia Glynn ISBN 9781406339062 Walker Books
Children’s Choice winners are:Under 7s – Your Perfect Pet: Love Your Hamster by Judith Heneghan ISBN 9780750268943 Wayland
7-12 – Science Crazy by Steve Parker and Raman Prinja ISBN 9781848359338 QED Publishing
12-16 – 100 Ways for Every Girl to Look and Feel Fantastic by Alice Hart-Davis and Beth Hindhaugh ISBN 9781406337549 Walker Books
Overall Winner – 100 Ways for Every Girl to Look and Feel Fantastic by Alice Hart-Davis and Beth Hindhaugh ISBN 9781406337549 Walker Books
The complete shortlist for 2013 was:
Under 7s
- Just Ducks by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino, ISBN 9781406327397 Walker Books
- Make With Maisy by Lucy Cousins ISBN 9781406339659 Walker Books
- Your Perfect Pet: Love Your Hamster by Judith Heneghan ISBN 9780750268943 Wayland
7-12
- Discover More: Penguins by Penelope Arlon and Tory Gordon-Harris ISBN 9781407131528 Scholastic Children’s Books
- Don’t Flush: Lifting the Lid on the Science of Poo and Wee by Richard Platt & Mary Platt, illustrated by John Kelly ISBN 9780753433997 Kingfisher (Macmillan)
- Incredible Edibles by Stefan Gates, illustrated by Georgia Glynn ISBN 9781406339062 Walker Books
- Science Crazy by Steve Parker and Raman Prinja ISBN 9781848359338 QED Publishing
12-16
- 100 Ways for Every Girl to Look and Feel Fantastic by Alice Hart-Davis and Beth Hindhaugh ISBN 9781406337549 Walker Books
- Discover More: Technology by Clive Gifford ISBN 9781407131566 Scholastic Children’s Books
- The Story of the Second World War by Paul Dowswell, illustrated by Ian McNee ISBN 9781409523406 Usborne Publishing
The Information Award is sponsored by Hachette Children’s Books and Peters Bookselling Services. No money is taken from the SLA budget so all staff time, the cost of the judging, prizes for the winners and the final award ceremony are covered by the sponsors’ donations.
via SLA – Information Book Award 2013.
Some more photos from the event:
Bath Festival of Children’s Literature 2013: 10 highlights – Telegraph
Bath Festival of Children’s Literature 2013: 10 highlights
Children’s Laureates, storytelling and a discussion by children about food are some of the highlights of the 2013 Telegraph Bath Festival of Children’s Literature
via Bath Festival of Children’s Literature 2013: 10 highlights – Telegraph.