Bookshop of the Month (April) The Edinburgh Bookshop Interviewee: Fiona (children's specialist) Can you tell us more about the Edinburgh Bookshop, and what drew you to work there?  The Edinburgh Bookshop is a small-but-stuffed, award-winning, independent bookshop based in the Bruntsfield area of the city. Besides being across the road from one of the best ice cream parlours in town (!), the shop's community spirit and focus on young readers was a real draw to work there, as well as the wonderful close-knit team of passionate booksellers, led by the inimitable Marie Moser, which I am now proud to be a part of. The Edinburgh Bookshop hosts author events and book clubs for children and young people. How important is having in-person events at the bookshop? A building full of books (most of which you haven't read) can be exciting for many but intimidating as well. Knowing that authors are just regular people too and were once children like them is encouraging and often reass

Children's Books North 2024 Mentor Scheme Meet the Mentors! Children’s Books North’s annual mentor scheme for aspiring publishers is back for 2024! Aiming to demystify the publishing industry to those wishing to pursue a career in the sector, the CBN Mentor Scheme offers selected mentees four remote mentoring sessions with an established publishing professional. Applications are now open! Doubling last year’s offering, this year we welcome twelve mentors from a variety of roles across the publishing sector, including experts from editorial, marketing, sales, design, production and agenting. Our CBN mentors this year include: Emma Layfield Picture Book Development Director North (HCG) & CBN co-founder Manchester-based Emma is Picture Book Development Director, North at Hachette Children’s Group. She is focused on acquiring Northern, Scottish and Irish talent. Emma is also Hachette UK’s Manchester Office Lead and is a board member for Seven Stories in Newcastle. Laura Horsley Pub

Children's Books North 2024 Mentor Scheme Applications Open! Applications are now open for the Children’s Books North Mentor Scheme! The scheme offers twelve aspiring publishers living in the North West, North East, Yorkshire and Scotland four hours of mentoring with a publishing professional over four months, with the goal of demystifying the industry for new talent. Mentoring will work on a 1:1 basis and mentees will be matched with a mentor that suits their interests and experience, whether that’s editorial, production, design, marketing, sales or agenting. For more info on publishing roles, see document here for a list of different departments within publishing. Applications are open to anyone interested in beginning a career in publishing. No previous experience is needed and we also welcome applications from those looking to change career path. The only essential is a love for children’s books and to be based in the North of England or Scotland. Scroll to the ‘How to Apply&#

   Northern Highlight Trish Cooke Where are you based, and how would you sum up the place in three words?  I am based in Yorkshire. Picturesque. Family. Home. What is special to you about working with children's books, and what is your favourite thing about it? It’s special when I read my story to a child and it connects. My favourite part of the process is reading the final draft after putting all the work in. You're an actress and a scriptwriter as well as a writer - how has that impacted your writing career and how you tell stories? From a very young age, I enjoyed creating characters and acting out stories. I loved finding out where the stories would go. Listening to what someone says and then carrying on the story with truth. This works for me as a performer and also as a writer creating characters and stories. It came naturally. Improvisation has always been something I have been good at, and I suppose this impacted me  not only  as a performer but also as a writer. I enj

   Committee Highlight Rebecca Mortimer Co-lead and publicist What’s your role on the CBN committee, and what excites you most about it? I'm co-lead and publicist for CBN. Being able to connect and promote the work of creatives living in the North and Scotland – there's so much talent here! What's one thing you'd like to achieve by the end of the year in your role? I'd like to see the number of CBN members increase even further. We have lots of exciting things planned this year and would love as many people to be involved as possible.  What's your day job outside of CBN, and what would be your dream job in publishing? I work in marketing and publicity at Saraband, an independent publisher based in Manchester. My dream job would be to own a bookshop (preferably by the sea!)  Where are you based, and how would you sum up the place in three words? I'm based in a small village in Lancashire. Three words – countryside, wildlife, friendly. If you could be transpor

   Northern Highlight Catherine Jacob Where are you based, and how would you sum up the place in three words?  I live in York. In three words: historic, vibrant, creative! What is special to you about working with children's books, and what is your favourite thing about it? The whole process is special. I came up with many of my picture book stories for my own children and some of the characters are based on my kids when they were very little, so that’s very special and personal. I often write in rhyme and there’s nothing more satisfying than coming up with a super original rhyme. I love it best when I’m completely ‘in the zone’ and the story just flies out of my brain in rhyme. It’s a weird process I guess, and I have no idea how, but it just sort of happens that way! Strangely, I find writing in rhyme easier than prose. Published by Scholastic, September 2019 Tell us about the most recent book you've worked on or come across in your job.  I’ve recently been working on a reall