Northern Highlight - Liz Scott

 Northern Highlight

Liz Scott

When did you start working freelance?

I moved from in-house publishing to freelance PR in 2008 when I left London to move to Manchester. 

My first job in the book industry was as a graduate at home in West Yorkshire at Bradford Waterstones - the most beautiful Waterstones in the country, that always smelled of a heady mix of books, coffee and lilies! I moved from there to High Street Kensington Waterstones in London to try and start a career in publishing. My first publishing job was as a Sales Department Assistant at Phaidon Press and from there I moved to Usborne Publishing where I realised my heart belonged with children's books. I still work with Usborne as a freelancer on their fiction list, and with Oxford Children’s Books across their trade publishing list. I work with lots of small independent publishers such as Old Barn Books and b small publishing on specific campaigns for both fiction and non fiction, as well as with literacy organisations such as Just Imagine and CLPE. 

Bradford Waterstones in the Wool Exchange, Bradford

Tell us about where you live and work.

I live in Altrincham on the border of Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Its the perfect mix of being on the tram line into Manchester and all that the city has (had?!) to offer, and being right on the edge of Cheshire countryside so that I can head out down the woods or along the canal with the dog at lunch time. I know I'm not the only one who finds that all the ideas and creativity happens, not when I'm sat in front of a screen, but when I'm wandering and mulling! Its also perfect for escaping to North Wales, the Lakes, the Peak District, Yorkshire ... all the places I love. 

How has COVID affected the way you work?

The last year has seen a huge difference in the way I work. While as a freelancer I've officially been working from home since 2008 - a full week at home used to be pretty rare. Whether it was on tour with an author, visiting bookshops or libraries planning events, at MediaCity for author interviews, or on the train to London for a couple of days of meetings, each week was very different. A decent proportion of my work was in organising and attending events and author tours - with a real focus on publication tours in schools and with bookshops in the North, so that's meant a massive change. It has been amazing to see how quickly and creatively PR campaigns have been adapted to online in the last year. 

Me on tour with Kevin the Roly-Poly Flying Pony from The Legend of Kevin by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre. Artwork by Sarah McIntyre

What big projects have you been working on recently? 

A massive advantage of freelance work is the opportunity to contribute to so many different kinds of campaigns with different publishers and organisations who all work in such varied ways. I've worked for a long time with micro indie publisher Old Barn Books who have such a focused list so every book they publish is a hand-picked passion project. At the end of last year Old Barn published Boy, Everywhere by debut author A. M. Dassu which was (rightly!) wonderfully well-received. Working with such a small publisher means you all work extremely closely together, so the author, the publisher and I became a really strong team. Its also immensely satisfying to be able to see the direct results of your work when you're involved in every aspect of a campaign. 

Last year I also had the huge privilege of working with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) on the release of the third annual Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children's Literature. The Survey identifies and evaluates minority representation within children's books and is making a huge contribution towards supporting producers and consumers of children's literature in working towards a more inclusive future. 

What for you is the 'spirit of the North'?

I really loved the answer that Mairi Kidd from Seven Stories gave to this question a few months ago, which slightly took us to task for suggesting that there could be one 'spirit' that's the same across all of the north! That said, there's definitely a certain something that means I'm at home and at ease when I'm in the North.

Who for you are the great Northern children's writers?

As a publicist and CBN co-founder I'm probably not going to start mentioning individual writers and risk missing someone! There are so many seriously excellent northern children's writers being published at the moment and the brilliant thing about them is the variety of stories they're telling - rural, urban, funny, inspired by folk tales or history. Sometimes very Northern stories and sometimes not. 

What would you like to see for children's creatives in the North?

One of the consequences of the way people have had to adapt their ways of working in the last year is that much of what we do has become more regionally inclusive. Virtual events mean that people who can't travel to London can still attend book launches. An acceptance of working from home means that people can do their jobs from anywhere. I'd like to see this continue to be a more considered approach to regional inclusivity and not just a happy accident. 

Liz is on Twitter @LizScottPR