By Sabeehah Saleq, Rosie Burgoyne and Michaela O’Callaghan
Caitlin Moran: More Than A Woman LIVE
7:30pm, 4–13 July
Join Caitlin Moran as she heads out on tour to mark the release of her new book, More Than a Woman. The book is a celebration of growth, ageing and womanhood. This promises to be a hilarious evening filled with uplifting stories about life beyond your thirties. Get your tickets here.
An Evening with Dolly Alderton
7:30pm, 19 July
If you enjoyed bestselling author Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love, you’ll definitely be keen to read her debut novel Ghosts. The book explores themes of love, memory, friendship and dating. Join the award-winning author as she delves into the book during this exclusive event at The London Palladium. Get your tickets here.
Spotlight On: New Northern Presses
6:30pm, 21 July
Join SYP North as they chat to three incredible new Northern presses about all things Northern publishing, launching in a pandemic, and navigating into the future. From finding out why they are needed in the market, to hearing more about their list, we are in for an exclusive conversation with the most exciting voices on the Northern publishing scene. Free tickets are available here.
Northern Publishers’ Fair
11:30am – 4:00pm , 24 July
Another Northern publishing event! Come and see a range of backlist and frontlist titles from various Northern publishers. Celebrate Northern publishing with publishers such as Fly on the Wall Press, Verve Poetry Press and Bluemoose Books! Sign up for your free slot here.
Hachette UK: ‘Opening the Book’ series
It has recently been announced that Hachette UK are launching a series of free, virtual events called ‘Opening the Book’. To say that we are excited about this is an understatement! From contracts and rights to production, upcoming events will cover all areas of publishing with an aim to make the publishing industry more transparent to those from underrepresented backgrounds.
The first event was on Monday 28 June and discussed all things marketing. If you missed out on the first event, don’t worry as you will still have a chance to sign up for the next event on audio/digital publishing! This will be on 14 July from 5.30 p.m. – 6.00pm. From an average day in the department to what skills you need to thrive in audio/digital, learn more about this blossoming area of the industry. You can sign up for free here.
We spoke to the ‘Opening the Book’ team about this brilliant new series for publishing hopefuls and aspiring authors.
One aspect we think makes this series different from others is the dedication to exploring a range of experiences from panellists in entry-level positions to those leading a department. Was this an active decision?
Yes, this was an active decision. We wanted to showcase the breadth of roles from across our business and bring different perspectives to the panels.
How did this series first come about?
This year marks the 5th anniversary of our diversity and inclusion programme, 'Changing the Story', and so we took time to reflect on what we could do to make publishing more accessible to more people, particularly those from groups who have been historically excluded in our industry. This led to the patrons of 'Changing the Story' – namely Sharmaine Lovegrove (publisher at Dialogue Books) and Nick Davies (MD of John Murray Press) – conceiving the ‘Opening the Book’ series which will run throughout this year. The first part of ‘Opening the Book’ will focus on sharing the realities of working in publishing with people who want to break into the industry. The second part will focus on aspiring authors. We started working on this series in January and look forward to seeing how it is received by attendees.
You spotlight so many different areas of publishing and we are very impressed by this. Can you tell us about how you chose these areas and why?
We chose the core areas from across our business and felt that it was important to dedicate a panel to each area in order showcase how the various teams work together across Hachette UK to publish a book.
How can publishing hopefuls get the most out of this free event series?
We’d highly recommend signing up to each event to get a full picture of how each department works together and an understanding of the timeline of publishing a book. If you’re unable to attend an event, please don’t worry! We will be recording all of the panels and making this available on our website.
Thank you so much for organising this event and chatting with us. We are sure that this series will help to demystify publishing and provide unique insight into all the different areas of publishing.
To find out more about the ‘Opening the Book’ series, take a look here.