society of authors: futures in publishing

I heard a couple people say they'd never seen the Society of Authors audience so excited and full of questions as they were last night at the Futures of Publishing panel event. Thank you so much to the fabulous and forward-thinking Jamie Smart, Alex Milway, Nana Li, Gary Northfield and everyone in the room who contributed to the discussion. ...Hey look, a Moshi Monster plushie!


Photo taken by Helena Pielichaty

I'm going to keep adding links if anyone blogged the event, but first up is Helena Pielichaty, Chair of the Children's Writers & Illustrators Group of the SoA. Thanks for blogging, Helena! Go read about the event here:



Thanks, Jo McCrum and the Society of Authors for treating us to a tasty dinner at The Henry Root. *Makes note to self for future dining.* I had a peek at Nana's sketchbook, who's doing a project with her co-workers at Moshi Monsters to fill up a sketchbook in a month. She's been doing a lot of gestural drawings, which were fun to see. And one she did at the restaurant when we were teasing Gary about his lovely fragrant shower gels.



Next up for events, I'm doing a joint Booktrust and Comica Festival panel organised by Booktrust's comic-artist-in-residence Hannah Berry, next Monday, 19 Nov, in London, with Simone Lia (The Phoenix Comic, Fluffy, Please God, Find Me A Husband), Dave McKean (Arkham Asylum, The Graveyard Book) Glyn Dillon (The Nao of Brown), Karrie Fransman (The House That Groaned) and another speaker whom we can't announce yet, but she's FABULOUS. Book your tickets here!

Here's an article about the event and Hannah's work on Paul Gravett's website:



And some of Hannah's thoughts on the subject over on her Booktrust blog: what can comics do that other books can't?




Society of Authors events are great for meeting other writers and illustrators, and I had fun meeting Russian filmmaker, comics creator and illustrator Evgenia Golubeva (or 'Zhenia', more informally). Thank you for the lovely book, Zhenia!



On the way to the Society of Authors meeting, I popped quickly into Slightly Foxed bookshop on Gloucester Road and this book made me laugh. I've seen so many Pride & Prejudice mash-ups recently! This one's a Pride & Prejudice baby counting book illustrated by Alison Oliver and text by Jennifer Adams. ...Oo, they sell badges, too.



So I'll keep adding links to this post if anyone else blogs the Futures of Publishing event... keep an eye on this page! And on the Society of Authors website; they're a great resource and support for UK book creators.