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...

  CHILDREN'S BOOKS NORTH 2023 MENTOR SCHEME  Our annual CBN mentor scheme for aspiring publishers is back for 2023!   This year we're delighted to be expanding the scheme as we're joined by three more CBN publishing professional mentors, allowing us to offer mentor scheme places to six new mentees for 2023. Read on for details of how to apply. Joining Children's Books North co-founders, Emma, Tilda and Liz, as mentors this year will be: Ashley Thorpe Based in Manchester, Ashley is Senior Editor at Storymix: the inclusive fiction studio. Ashley has worked in publishing since 2008 and is a children's writer in his own right. Alice Bartosinski Based in Kendal in Cumbria, Alice is a Senior Commissioning Editor with Nosy Crow and works on picture books. Alice has previously worked with Egmont and Simon & Schuster. Tom Ashton-Booth Based in Doncaster, Tom is children's book designer with Oxford University Press, working on picture books and young fiction. Tom is...

 Children's Books North  We Are Three!  It hardly seems possible that it is already three years since we launched Children's Books North with our very first social event in Manchester February 2020. Our third year was another packed year of celebration, promotion and championing the creativity in the North and Scotland. Now seems like a good time to look back on a great 2022 ...  2022 Mentor scheme The second year of our mentor scheme for aspiring publishing professionals brought a brand-new cohort of mentees for Emma, Tilda and Liz to work with. Luke Power, Joanne Ruffell and Helen Varley joined us to take their first steps into learning more about the publishing industry. We're absolutely delighted that for our 2023 mentor scheme we will be joined by more publishing professional mentors, giving us the opportunity to offer additional mentee places to aspiring professionals. Watch this space for further announcements. CBN Summer Social After a long two and a half yea...

    CHILDREN'S BOOKS NORTH 2022 MENTOR SCHEME  We are delighted to announce that the Children's Books North Mentor Scheme is returning for 2022. It is now two years since we launched Children's Books North, with a key aim of increasing regional diversity in the children’s book industry. The 2021 mentor scheme saw CBN co-founders - Emma, Liz and Tilda - support aspiring publishing professionals Emma Toft, Fatima Shazad and Sarah Nuttall as CBN's first cohort of mentees.   Emma Toft      Fatima Shazad   Sarah Nuttall ‘The CBN mentor scheme was an invaluable experience for me both professionally and personally. With the help of my mentor, Tilda, I was able to work on and improve my application and interview skills as well as improving my social media presence. She was also a great help in introducing me to different publishing professionals to learn more about specific areas of the industry.’ Emma Toft...

  CHILDREN'S BOOKS NORTH 2021 MENTOR SCHEME  We are delighted to be launching our first Children's Books North Mentor Scheme. One of CBN’s aims is to increase regional diversity in the children’s book industry. There is so much talent that we want to encourage, nurture and retain here, so CBN is launching a mentor scheme for would-be children’s book industry professionals living in the North of England and Scotland. The co-founders of CBN – Emma, Liz and Tilda – are offering to be mentors each year, for  three aspiring publishing professionals looking to beginning a career working within a UK publisher. Mentoring will work on a 1:1 basis. Applications are open to anyone interested in beginning a career in publishing.  No previous experience is needed.  What is involved? An introductory 1-hour meeting (face-to-face or via Zoom, Teams, etc.) f ollowed by four 1-hour meetings focused on: Improving your CV & social media profile The importance of networki...