Skylark Literary Launches with New Competition for Children's Writers

W&P is very pleased to promote this free competition:

To celebrate its launch, Skylark Literary is delighted to announce an exciting free competition for new children’s authors, full of fun and sparkle to brighten these dark winter days.

The company prides itself on seeking and supporting the best new voices in children’s fiction and with this in mind has enlisted the support of top editors and publishers as guest judges.


Fiona Kennedy, MD and Publisher of Orion Children’s Books, Ben Horslen, Editorial Director, Puffin Fiction and Venetia Gosling, Publisher Over 6s at Macmillan Children’s Books will help to choose the competition winner.

The competition is especially for new, un-agented and unpublished authors who are writing for middle-grade readers. The prize will be a one-to-one editorial critique of the winner’s finished manuscript with Skylark Literary (www.skylark-literary.com). Competition closes Christmas Eve, December 24th 2014 with the winner to be announced in the new year.

Amber Caravéo and Joanna Moult of Skylark Literary say: ‘It is very exciting to be launching Skylark Literary with this competition for new authors. We are honoured to have the support and enthusiasm of guest judges from some of the UK’s top Children’s Publishers, who are also staunch supporters of great new writing for children!’

Ben Horslen of Puffin Fiction says: 'I'm delighted to be collaborating with Skylark as the agency begins its search for wonderful new voices in children's writing and I can't wait to read the entries – with perhaps one of tomorrow's bestselling authors among them!'

For further information, please contact Amber and Joanna on info@skylark-literary.com

Ask a Publisher, Amber Caraveo, Editorial Director, Orion Children's Books and Indigo

@AmberCaraveo talks to @HouseRowena

Recorded June 20th 2014

in London at Orion Children's Books

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Rowena House is a journalist by trade - an ex-Reuters foreign correspondent in Europe and Africa, now a sub-editor specialising in international affairs. She turned to writing fiction for young people to meet a deep desire to tell gritty stories that are true in an emotional sense, without being constrained by ‘the facts’. She's recently been published by Andersen Press in the War Girls anthology with her short story The Marshalling of Angelique's Geese. Rowena lives in rural Devon with her remarkably tolerant family and their less tolerant dog, a grey-and-white sheep dog called Fletcher.

Amber Caraveo & Joanna Moult to Set Up New Children's Literary Agency

We're delighted to share this exciting news with Words & Pictures readers. 

Amber Caravéo (currently Editorial Director at Orion Children’s Books and Indigo) is joining forces with Joanna Moult (formerly of Hodder Children’s Books and Simon & Schuster) to set up a bright new literary agency and creative consultancy, Skylark Literary – www.skylark-literary.com

Skylark Literary will specialise in representing the very best children’s and young adult fiction, seeking talented voices in stories for young people and working with publishers to create bespoke children’s books and series.

Amber Caravéo has been passionate about children’s books ever since she learned to read and has spent the last eighteen years in children’s editorial – working closely with her authors to get their books ready for publication and also creating and developing children’s and YA projects. She has worked internationally, with bestselling authors and publishing houses in the UK and the US, and on a wide range of projects from Rainbow Magic to Adventure Island.

Amber says,

‘I have been privileged to work with the wonderful Orion team and fabulous authors. I am very sad to say goodbye, but the time felt right to make the leap and embark on this exciting new adventure – seeking and supporting new talent in children’s publishing.’

Lisa Milton, Managing Director, General Division, Orion, and Fiona Kennedy, MD and Publisher, Orion Children's Books and Indigo, say,

‘Whilst working at Orion Amber has developed, created and commissioned a wide range of excellent books. Her attention to detail, passion and most importantly vision for her books and her authors has delivered a number of significant successes. To be able to find new and fresh ideas for series for middle-grade children is a particularly challenging job. Amber has consistently delivered above our expectations. We'll miss Amber and wish her well in her exciting new adventure.’

Joanna Moult began her career with Hodder Children’s Books, editing a range of talented authors as well as creating content for brands such as Felicity Wishes. She moved in order to cover maternity leave, running the children’s editorial department at Simon & Schuster. More recently she has been working with literary agents, helping them to find new talent and editing manuscripts prior to submission to publishers.

 Joanna says, 

‘Author care is one of the most rewarding and fascinating elements of being an editor for me and this feels like a very natural progression for both of us. With Skylark Literary I'm delighted to begin our search for new and exciting voices, as well as creating some really fresh and fun projects for publishers.’

Skylark Literary launches in November and will welcome submissions from authors. The company also looks forward to working with talented writers to create fun and fabulous children’s projects, specifically tailored to individual publishers.

For further information, please contact Amber Caravéo: amber@skylark-literary.com

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The Chalkface Challenge 2014: The Shadowing Results

We know who won The Chalkface Challenge 2014 - congratulations again to Jill Atkins for Elrac and the Konkipong Tree  but whose entries were sent with Jill's to the Shadow Judges? And did our shadows choose the same winner as the children?

Firstly,  here are our runners up - shortlisted by the children at Sparsholt C of E Primary School, in no particular order:

Ruth Griffiths @ruthsageman with Sheriff Daisy and the Cold Custard Ambush (entry22)
'I liked that this story was fun and enjoyable, yet it was probably better suited for younger readers. The story made full sense and was easy to read, I don't think I'd change anything If I'm correct about the age thing.'

Jan Deykin with Hunting Fernando (entry 28)
'It was a real page turner'
'I like that the theme was football.'
'I enjoyed it and I would like to read more.'

Celia Anderson  @CeliaAnderson1 with Teacher Torture (entry 3)
'I loved the idea of a teachers prison.'
'I found it quite funny that he only had one hair.'

Tamara Wolcough with Stag Lodge and the Missing Oracle (entry 16)
'I liked this story because there was a school for secret agents and I thought the story was really good'



The comments above are from The Chewstoke Reviewers who are aged 10 to 11yrs.
A small problem with the post (the kind that lands on your door mat) means I don't yet have the Sparsholt comments. All those of you who entered and have kindly sent me SAE's, I'll post out as sound as I do.

Congratulations Celia, Tamara, Ruth, and Jan!

So what did the shadow judges think - did they agree with the children?

Here are the shadow judges comments:


Amber Caraveo, Editorial Director at Orion Children's Books & Indigo

'I had so much fun reading the top five Chalkface Challenge entries!

It was incredibly difficult to pick a favourite. I thought Entry 3 was very funny (especially torturing the teachers with pictures of tea and KitKats! ☺) and I can definitely see how it will appeal to young readers, but ultimately the winning entry for me is Entry 22.

I thought Entry 22 was written with personality and imagination. I loved that Daisy was such a brave and feisty female protagonist, I really enjoyed the idea of her storybook characters coming to life and I adored the little details – like Ears’ ears drooping when he’s disappointed, the Strawberry Saloon serving jam tarts and Bad-Breath Bill demanding a ransom of gold chocolate coins! Fun and inventive – it’s a winner for me!'


Ben Illis, Literary Agent at The BIA Agency

'My favourite is entry 16.

Here’s why:

I love the way it starts as any ‘first day at a new school' narrative might start and then casually throws in the fact that Jamie and Dan are to be training as secret agents. There’s something lovely about the matter of fact tone in which this piece of super-exciting information is then discussed, to say nothing of the humour in Aunt Evie’s description of her own failures back in her own day and the tantalising revelation that Jamie’s mum was one of the best back in hers. I also love the way it leaves us hanging, wondering just what sort of excitement Jamie and Dan are going to be facing during their top secret training. I mean after all, who HASN’T dreamt of being a secret agent?!'


Jasmine Richards, Senior Commissioning Editor at OUP Children's

'OMG! How amazing are the shortlisted entries! Really confident and exciting storytelling and I've found it extremely difficult to choose just one because all of the stories are very strong.

However, under threat of being poked with a long stick and thrown in a cage with those horrible teachers I'm going to choose Flynn and the Cell Block Zero Teachers’ Prison. I loved how naturally funny this writer was and the attention to little details which set the scene and provided backstory.

I also liked that I could clearly see where this story was going - got a feeling that Flynn and those teachers are going to need to work together to beat that monster! Overall a very masterful piece of work - well done!'

Karen Ball, Publisher at Little, Brown Young Readers & Atom 

'My favourite extract is number 16, reasons below: The extract opens with a strong and intriguing line of dialogue. I immediately wanted to know why Jamie was struggling to breath! The opening sentences also work hard at establishing personalities in a quick space of time. We see that Aunt is distracted but very engaged in Jamie’s destiny and that Dan has a mischievous sense of humour. Our main character’s wry narrative perspective establishes the mood of the book, and I quickly understood (in a good way!) what type of journey I was on.

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place, she actually blogs every week - here! She loves to write colourfully and organises The Chalkface Challenge by sweet talking all these lovely people to read, review, judge and most importantly ENTER! You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.

The Chalkface Challenge: Introducing the Judges

The Chalkface Challenge
presents…

The Shadow Judges…

• KAREN BALL, @karenball is a publisher at Little, Brown Young Readers & Atom.
• AMBER CARAVEO, @AmberCaraveo is editorial director at Orion children's books & Indigo
• JASMINE RICHARDS, @JRichardsAuthor  a senior commissioning editor for children's books at Oxford University Press
• BEN ILLIS, @bookboyben is a kids & YA literary agent at The BIA literary agency

These excellent people will each select their favourite opening excerpt from the 5 entries shortlisted by the young judges at Sparsholt Church of England Primary School. They won't know who has actually won until after they've made their selection when the children's verdict is announced on Sunday 20th July. Will Karen, Amber, Jasmine and Ben pick the same winner as the children? The Shadow Judges results and their comments will be published the following week on the 27th July.

The judges have also sent in some information on  their reading preferences.

Here they are:

Robert, Shadat, Dominic (Year 4)

Cara, Ben, Isabelle (Year 4)

Abby, Imogen, Georgina (Year 3)

Jacob (Year 3)

Generally:

Y3 children like magical adventures. Characters should be funny and the adventures full of excitement. Their wish list included a girl as a knight, a war in the woods and a big creepy castle. Characters were the main thing they liked about their favourite books.
Y4 children read longer books. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Tom Gates are all big favourites at the moment. They still like lots of adventure and excitement but were less insistent about a magical element. Lots of realistic (gory*) detail though was requested.

This shouldn't in any way deter you from sending in your ungory* story because, as we discovered, last year's judges uncharacteristically shortlisted Julie Fulton's gripping opening to her WW2 canal boat adventure. They are a discerning group of people.

The closing date for entries is Sunday 15th June at 12 noon BST
Instructions for how to enter here.

You have 14 days to make your opening 500 words Sparsholt ready!

Good Luck!

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