by Joe Kelly


"A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them." 
- Lemony Snicket

When most people think of libraries, they imagine pristine, quiet but most of all empty rooms with but one or two people quietly studying ancient, dusty tomes in a tranquil corner. This charge however cannot be laid upon the school library. In fact the quote above pretty much sums up its ethos and character. School libraries are bright and busy centres for learning, information gathering and most importantly fun! That’s not a word usually synonymous with library but in the JCSP library in Trinity Comprehensive School Ballymun the focus is on active learning in a warm and friendly environment.

Trinity Comprehensive School Ballymun is a large mixed school which was formed over five years ago after the amalgamation of three other schools in the area. The school is a very dynamic one in that efforts are constantly being made to help the young people of the area develop socially as well as academically. An example of this is the fact that the FAI National Futsal Centre is based in the school and this was recently visited by none other than Pele! The JCSP library compliments this approach in that it has an integral part to play in broadening out the curriculum in a way which responds to the varying talents and abilities of students

 JCSP stands for the Junior Certificate School Programme which is based on the concept that all young people are capable of real success in school and that they can have a positive experience of school if the conditions are favourable. The Programme is a national Department of Education and Science Programme within the Junior Certificate aimed at students who may leave school early.

 To further develop this programme libraries with professional librarians have been placed in 30 JCSP schools. Each Library is stocked with an exciting collection of carefully chosen books and other resources designed to entice and engage the reluctant teenager. These libraries are creative active learning spaces designed and run specifically to improve literacy levels and enhance the learning experience of JCSP students. While prioritising literacy development of JCSP students, the libraries also provide a service to the whole school including well stocked teacher resource sections.

The work of a JCSP librarian is many and varied. Reading and writing skills are developed, reading habits nurtured and the information skills needed to navigate and participate in society are practiced.  The Librarian, working in professional partnership with teachers, helps to run intensive and focused programmes aimed at improving teenagers' Literacy and Numeracy skills. As a cultural centre at the heart of the school, the library regularly play host to diverse visitors including storytellers, authors, illustrators, film-makers, dancers, musicians and many more.

As a librarian it is important to remain user focused in that the resources which are available to students must match their learning needs. For this reason it is important that there are ample books which correlates to the reading ages of the students, yet at the same time also reflect their interests. Finding materials such as these which the students will find interesting can be tough, however being part of a community of 30 librarians who are all working in similar situations means that professional advice is just an E Mail or phone call away.

As well as the usual library tasks such as purchasing and cataloguing new materials, a number of other just as important tasks must be completed in the JCSP library on a daily basis. The following are a range of activities which take place in Trinity Comprehensive School Ballymun as well as other libraries in the project:

·      Student and teacher book clubs;

·      JCSP Paired Reading;

·      Timetabled reading classes;

·      JCSP Word Millionaire;

·      Intercultural showcase;

·      Borrowing books for leisure reading;

·      JCSP Readalong;

·      Storytelling;

·      JCSP Make A Book Exhibition;

·      Family Literacy Programme;

·      Student designed materials

·      Library and information skills training;

·      Performance space;

·      Creative writing and Drama;

·      Exhibition space;

·      Before and after school activities and Clubs;

·      Numeracy Programmes;

·      Display of students work;

·      Author visits and residencies.

  The JCSP library in Trinity Comprehensive School Ballymun is thriving everyday as it seeks to best serve the needs of the students in the school. At the heart of these efforts is the attempt to create a welcome sanctuary for independent learning. To finish the piece it is probably fitting to finish with a quote from a library user.

“This is the best bleedin’ place in the school. I never thought I could have such a great time reading.”

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by Hannah Deacon

I can't really imagine a life without books. Well, actually, that's not true. Due to the mind-elasticating properties of books, I am fully able to imagine the bleak, barren wasteland of non-culture that would be my life if I was deprived them. Oh, the irony.

Despite, however, my reverence and awe for the hallowed shelves of Easons and other suchlike proprietors of heaven; it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a good teen fiction novel. Once you wade through the ever-increasing tide of chick lit (which comes in two varieties- gratingly naive thirteen year olds "snogging" HAWT BOYZ, and shamelessly trashy sixteen year olds sleeping with HAWT BOYZ) and on-trend vampire romances, there is surprisingly little left in the line of good-quality, readable material.

I can only come to the conclusion that, either the authors don't actually remember what being a young adult is like, or we are an entirely new breed of teenager in comparision to previous generations: with a slightly higher ratio of brain cells to hair product.

Are we really so hard to understand? Are we that foreign and isolated from the rest of the literary market?

What authors need to realise is that we are not children. As cliched and bitter-teenagery that sounds, its true. We won't just accept a story as it comes. We analyse, we dismantle, we understand. We notice when you use a plot device. Take note, authors; most reading teenagers are also writing teenagers. We aspire to be as good as, and better, than you. You are our idols, so don't let us down by condescending us or moulding characters to fit what you think we want to read.

Here's a list of what we look for in books:

1. Character depth and plausability. I cannot stress this enough! What with the Internet phenomenon of fanfiction, fanart, fanvideos etc, reading has become a much more interactive experience than ever before. We need to be able to relate to the characters. We need to know why they do something, how doing that something made them feel. Thought processes are vital. Its such a turn-off when a character does something out of character, and it isn't explained - like we're supposed to just accept that this happened for no apparent reason.

    

   As young adults, we're reaching new profound depths of emotion and understanding. On top of this, we're experiencing the world in an entirely new way, and experiencing entirely new things; falling in love, falling out of love, lust, hate. Everything is passionate and furious. Always remember that while we're not kids, we're not quite adults either.

 

2. I know you might not want to hear this, but we do know and think about sex. And drugs. And homosexuality. And self-harm. We don't want porn, we want reality. Don't blatantly avoid topics that you think might harm our delicate sensibilities: we already know way too much more than we should. If you are writing a sex scene, honesty and tastefulness is the way to go. Don't butter it up.

 

3. Originality is key. Again, don't tune it to what you think we want. If it's good, we will like it. Try to keep characters, especially the protagonist, fresh and interesting. Story lines become easier to guess with age, so keep us guessing. Put a fresh twist on an old dogma. Plot twists are nearly essential, and please please don't give us a happily ever after. Realism, people. Endings can be iffy, but a good, slightly open ending is always one of the best ways to go. Leave some food for thought. If you've just come to the conclusion of a series fraught with peril and danger and despair, don't give us sap (coughstepheniemeyercough).

 

4. Pacing; I don't think this is a particularly age-related problem, but it's often a problem none-the-less. Don't spend forever setting up a story. It's far more engaging to have some things unknown, and to learn them along the way. We are the sort of people who don't care if we stay up till five in the morning reading, and only have one hour of sleep left till we have to get up! Keep us hooked!

 

5. Nearly everything ties back to character depth. We are teenagers: angsty, angry and confused, most of the time. We self-loathe, we make mistakes, we learn. Don't preach to us, and don't try to be us; just write.

Mostly, books spread by word of mouth. Readers tend to congregate, even if they're in different cliques. How else do you think ‘Twilight' spread so far? Summer of 2008, Ireland: ‘Twilight' was, as of yet, nearly unknown. One girl finds it, reads it, passes it on. Soon enough, screaming fangirls (and a fair few fanboys) are clogging a film premier.

If you're the one to find the book, there are a few things that catch our attention. Cover-art and design is obviously the eye-catcher. Different things appeal to different audiences, but in general, waify looking girls staring morosely out of the bookshelves don't inspire confidence. Once a book has been picked up, the blurb is read.

DO NOT use the following template:

">insertnamehere< was just an ordinary boy/girl. That was, until... etc etc etc."

That book is gone before you can say clichéd. Blurbs should be short, intriguing, and should tell you the barest minimum about the book. There's a reason for the several hundred pages of writing between the covers.

As we are the Internet generation, social sites are a fantastic way of spreading the news about books. Popular Youtubers and Tweeple can sell a book like nothing else can. A prime example of this is Stephen Fry's famous tweet "You will not read a more dazzling book this year than David Eagleman's 'Sum'. If you read it and aren't enchanted I will eat 40 hats." , which sent the sales of said book rocketing up to 6000%.

I'm lucky in that a great majority of my friends and family read. My mum is a primary school teacher, and a great lover of children's literature, and has introduced me to authors like Jerry Spinelli and Patrick Ness! Likewise, my friends have showed me the joys of Terry Pratchett and graphic novels. If one person reads, the people around them will read. We often feel isolated as teenagers, and books are such an amazing way of sharing opinions and thoughts.

After all my ranting and raving, I have one last thing to say: you can never ensure a book will appeal to adolescents. If it's good, we will find it. We have nothing better to do with our time.

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by Juliette Saumande

There is no such thing as a blank page when you translate. That's the beauty of it. The original might not be the best book ever written, but it is written and all you have to do as a translator is write it again; a piece of cake, when you have a plot, characters and everything nailed down, even the description of the hero's favourite duvet cover. But there is a catch of course, as the real job of the translator is to find the right balance between maintaining the ‘exotic' aspect of the original and making it accessible to the new reader. Here are a few pointers on how to achieve this:

• Do translate into your mother-tongue. No matter how brilliant you are in an adopted language, you'll never be absolutely faultless and fluent, and that's what you need for translating literature. This means that people whose mother-tongue isn't English are potentially busier than those with English as heir first language. Why? Because in the UK, only about 3% of children's books are not originally written in English, whereas in France, for instance, 30-40% come from abroad. In their search for the next big thing, publishers in continental Europe appear a lot more open to foreign talent.

 

• Do not rewrite the original, however tempting. As a translator, you are allowed to correct mistakes (for example if the original contains a week of two Mondays or says John when it means Mary), but you can't cut out a description that seems boring to you or edit out a scene which you feel is too violent or soapy. You can, however, manifest your feelings to the editor and make suggestions. He or she will then make the decision. Sometimes, the only solution is to leave out something: such as an untranslatable joke, or a cultural reference that will mean nothing to the new readers without extensive notes.

 

• Do work within the limits of the language you're translating into. Not all languages are as rich as English when it comes to light or sound description, for example. And not all of them are as tolerant of repetition. So the glint of the gleaming moon that shone gently over the glistening roofs may have to go.

 

• Do compensate. It's allowed! If you feel poetic effect was lost in one scene, maybe you can introduce more lyricism somewhere else. Humour, when it is based on puns (the bane of the translator), can be shuffled around in a similar manner.

 

• Do not be too faithful to the original. Imagine working on something like the Harry Potter series where all the names mean something (think of Grim/auld Place or Lavender Brown). If you leave them as they are, then you're depriving your readers of some insight into a character or a location.

 

• Do not write an encyclopaedia when you're translating a novel. Translation isn't just about language; you're also moving from one culture to another and you don't want to lose anybody in the journey. Take a school story written, say, in Ireland. Chances are that the children from the next-door country will have no idea what age a fifth-class student is supposed to be or what assembly is or how come classes are over by 1.30pm and so on. The last thing you want to do is to over-burden the text with footnotes, glossaries or encyclopaedic appendixes on whatever educational system the characters have to put up with.

 

• Do translate for real-life readers. You're not here to impress teachers or lecturers with a clever interpretation or daring linguistic acrobatics. The translator needs to convey meaning, yes, but also style, pace, suspense, humour, feeling and all the range of emotions the author intended. So the translator must be something of a writer him/herself. The translated text must flow as well as the original, with no strangeness in the language and all necessary extra information kept as unobtrusive as possible. In other words, the reader of a translation must feel as if the book was written for him or her in the first place. The first and last rule of translation is readability.

To me writing is something fragile as a soufflé. I know I can write only when I am actually writing. When I stop, the nice fluffy top of the soufflé collapses and I never have a guarantee that I can cook up another one. But translation is more like a Christmas cake: solid, essentially fool-proof, and feeding many more than the original recipe promised. So really, as a writer-translator, translating is the next best thing!

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By Debbie Thomas

When I grow up I want to be a children’s author. I’m 42. I tap away most days. When’s it going to happen?

When I sign a contract? Just done that.

When my first book’s published? Could be a one-off.

When my seventeenth hits the shelves? What if it’s my last?

How about when I shut up, knuckle down and jolly well enjoy it?

I spent years thinking that everyone wants to write for children so why bother. Eight years ago it dawned on me that some people actually don’t. Some allegedly normal men and women, who love to paint, shot-put and build ziggurats from toothpicks, can’t think of anything worse than staring at a computer for hours while chewing on metaphorical pencils in order to type words, most of which will be deleted, for an audience that suffers long, pompous sentences, with too many commas and clauses, like a shark suffers shingles.

So I sat down and became one of those staring, chewing, typing, deleting, unpublished Ring Wraiths known as aspiring writers. Not that real writers don’t stare, chew, tap and delete as well. The big divide, I thought - the one that rockets them to a different planet - is that real writers have contracts and aspiring ones don’t. Then I signed one. And there was no rocketing. Not even a plane trip. Just a wonderful, affirming ticket to an adventure park down the road. As for aspiring, I’m doing more than ever: to sharper, kinder, wiser writing. I wish I’d known that eight years ago. I’d have spent less time imagining the view from that non-existent planet and more time enjoying writing.

Here I risk rotten cyber-tomatoes. Who wouldn’t bang on about enjoyment when they’ve just signed a contract? But for me it’s the key to success. For the last eight years it’s been my only success, in the face of repeated rejection. By success I mean the days when the story took over. When Hubris Klench followed me to the loo and shrieked at me for misquoting him. When I noticed how the skin bulged over Squashy Grandma’s left eye. When dinner had to wait and bedtime was late because the fringed bees of Logrono were buzzing round the bathroom. Conversely, lack of enjoyment has been my failure. It’s usually come around the tenth rejection. That’s when I turn from the part I can influence (creation) to the part I can’t (publication). And nothing guarantees hopeless writing like a hope-less writer.

So how do you rouse enjoyment, when the twenty seventh agent tells you how intrigued/ entertained/interested s/he was to read your story but the market is very small/competitive/busy and they receive 200/500/740,293 submissions a month/week/day? That’s a tricky one. But I’ve collected a few pointers in the last aspiring years that should help in the next aspiring ones.

• Wait. Don’t hurry the story. Let it bubble and brew in the swamp of your mind. Only start writing when the characters have emerged, muddy but distinct.

 

• Rejection isn’t failure. Criticism can be priceless or useless. Listen for that deep-down whisper telling you whether a comment rings true.

 

• Find out as much as you can about agents or publishers, send your very best effort to the most suitable ones then stick up two fingers and write your next book.

And if all that fails, think of Roald Dahl folded away in his little shed, hooting with glee as Mrs Twit drops her glass eye in his mug.

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by Sarah Webb

Paths to Publication - September 2009. 
These are the notes from a talk author Sarah Webb gave at the Paths to Publication Conference run by Children’s Books Ireland in association with the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators.


www.sarahwebb.ie

All successful children’s writers work extremely hard and are passionate about their books and about their writing career. If they intend to stay writing, they will do whatever it takes. If that means doing publicity, even if it means telling people what they had for breakfast, they will do it.
 
The good news is that every writer can do a lot to market and promote their own book. The secret – and yes, there is a secret – but like most things it’s this – hard work, being organised and determined – a lot of work can be done behind the scenes months before your book reaches the bookshop shelves.

When I started out in books, I had no experience in marketing or publicity – I just used my head – so what I did, you can do too. 
 
But before that some general points.
 
First things first – don’t worry about any of this unless you have written a book worth promoting. Put your time and energy into the writing first and foremost.
 
Also – publicity and marketing are two different things. Now, I don’t have any marketing qualifications so these points are in my own words and probably not very ‘scientific’. The way I see it, marketing means promoting your book to the market and in the marketplace – ie the shops. It means getting information about your book to the relevant children’s buyers and booksellers, backing up that information with display material – such as posters and bookmarks. And keeping the bookshops informed of any publicity you have lined up for the book.
 


In general, your publisher should be on top of the marketing – but if they don’t intend to do posters or bookmarks – say for example they are small, your book is self published or published in England (this is directed at Irish authors of course!) - and few books get much marketing spend – think about doing it yourself. And dropping postcards/posters/bookmarks in yourself to your local libraries, bookshops and schools. Think of investing in business cards, stickers, thank you cards – useful things are good – keyrings maybe? Yes, it costs money. But think of it as money invested in your future as a writer.

The more booksellers know about your book the better chance it has of being recommended, restocked, put on a table, put in promotions. But there is a fine line between being pushy and helpful. Never be pushy, never be arrogant. Treat booksellers like royalty – they are the ones who put your books on the shelves and into parents and childrens’ hands. 
 
If your book is not on the shelf, it is nothing personal. See it as your problem. Send them some information on your book – or even a copy of the book with a friendly covering note saying you are a local author and would be delighted to see your book on their shelves. Always check with your publishers before calling into bookshops and talking to booksellers. They may like to ask your sales rep to go along and introduce you. They may like to use it as a sales opportunity. Work with your publisher. 
 
But remember – no one cares as much about your book as you do. Be passionate and talk about your book with enthusiasm – and as Patrick Ness would say, joy!

And no bookseller wants to hear you grumble about how little your publisher does to promote you – get on with it yourself  (and over yourself) – take control. But one thing I’ll come back to time and time again – be prepared to work hard and do things yourself. Do not leave everything to your publisher. They have a lot of books to market and promote. Your book is your baby. Once your book is published, your journey is just beginning. 
 
There are over 8,000 children’s books published every year. If you want to make your book stand out, and especially if you want to be a career writer – someone who earns their living from writing or part of their living from writing, then you must do all you can to promote your book.
 
The reality is it is not enough to just write a book and sit back and see what happens. You also have to connect with children, with booksellers, with librarians, with teachers, with parents – with anyone who buys books. You need to make them aware that your book is a/ in the shops now and b/worth buying.
 

Looks do not matter – you do not have to be a supermodel – but personality and professionalism do. Above all, be yourself. Maybe a glittery, happy version of yourself – but still yourself. I call it being on – be the person you’d be at a party, or at a job interview. And think about the image you are projecting – if you write horror, don’t look like an accountant.
Some good black shirts are a good investment. You could go so far as having a signature style – Terry Prachett has his hats, Jackie Wilson has her silver jewellery. 
Think about what you are wearing when visiting bookshops/schools/going to children’s book conferences. And get involved with your own publicity – but keep your publisher informed of what you intend to do. It can be daunting at the beginning – but having a plan makes everything easier. 
 
Publishers are only too delighted to have help – well organised, professional, well planned help – talk to them about how you can help.
 


Publicity – means using the media to tell people about your book – print, radio, telly.
 
4 to 6 months before your book is published – set up a meeting with the publicity person in the publishing house (if possible) and bring a list of possible publicity angles – I’ll talk about angles in a few minutes - and any media contacts you might have.
 
Think of it like planning a wedding.

I’m going to fly through the different stages of an ideal publicity plan. But first – my first book – for my first book I started local. Everyone can do this!
 
Kids Can Cook – I had no profile at all. I rang Southside news and wrote a piece on cooking with children for them. My church newsletter – I wrote a piece for them. I also did a piece for my sailing club newsletter.
 
The Evening Herald did a piece on me - the first cookbook for children in Ireland – I friend of mine worked in the herald and she set this up. I had an angle – Dublin single mum gets kids cooking. 
 
I did a lot of school events – during the children’s book festival – that my publisher set up and that I set up – I also did some CBI events – I basically told them what I did – cookery sessions with children- and they booked me in to schools. Because it was something different, they really liked this. And I did several special needs schools also. Also library events
 
That book is still in print 10 years on and has sold thousands of copies. And it’s still selling. If I was bringing out a first book now I would certainly use the internet to reach readers – see below for details. 
 
For Amy Green, my latest children’s book, the publicity plans were a lot more elaborate – Walker Books made a special Amy Green website, and did some super posters and hand outs, but I still did some of the publicity myself.
 


Here is a what I call the ideal publicity plan – with all bases covered. If you can do some of this – great! I hope it will make you think and consider the possibilities. It is not meant to scare you, just to point out what can be done . . . 
 

4 months before publication
 

Meet the pr person in your publishing house 
Draw up your pr plan with the pr person 
 
Set up your website – I would advise every children’s writer to get a website – and put the details of the website in your book so readers can contact you and also teachers and librarians can contact you.
 
Consider setting up a Facebook page, or a Bebo page, or Twitter or My Space – whatever suits you and your book best.
 
If you do not want people to know too much about you, invent a writing persona – and invent things to tell your readers – but be consistent.
But you must connect with people online these days. Especially if you want an international career. 



3 months before publication


Submit feature ideas to magazines
. Now this many take months, years to get anything taken – but keep at it – once you have one piece published, it is so much easier.
Are there any specialist magazines you subscribe to – try submitting an article to them – a great place to start. Or internet magazines/newsletters – again, good experience.
 
You could offer to review for Inis magazine (specialist Irish children’s book mag) – which is how I started reviewing – for free of course – but I got a/ experience and b/ some lovely books!


2 months before publication


Submit feature ideas to the magazines of newspapers
 
Set up your book launch if you would like to have one (organise your own in a local bookshop or venue – and yes, you may have to pay for the wine!)
 
Set up some school and library events – use your contacts – your child’s school etc
But make the events interesting – don’t just expect to go in and read to them. I spend about 3 weeks a year working on content for talks, workshops and readings and making it fresh and exciting. Work at it! Practice! Watch other authors in action and pick up ideas.
Once these events are fixed – send the details to the listings of the newspapers and also local newspapers. And on that subject – network – go to children’s book events, join CBI, join the Society of Children’s Writers and Ilustrators.
 
Read Mags from CBI’s the  very hungry caterpillar blog ; read David Maybury’s blog – full of good info. And UK and Americian blogs. 
 


1 month before publication.

Submit ideas to the features pages of newspapers – yes, you need to come up with these ideas yourself – depending on you and your life/book. Think of column ideas for guest columns (Realistically – this will be down the line when you have some experience of writing articles etc). Write your press release (your publisher will probably do this for you – ask them for advice)


3 weeks before publication


Send out the invites to the launch
 


2 weeks before publication

Send out review copies of your book to relevant newspapers and magazines – eg Inis, Book Fest etc (your publisher may do this – check with them), the irish indo, the irish times. 
 
Set up radio interviews – using your press release (again, your pr person may do this)
Don’t forget local radio – a great place to start – east coast for eg. Send a book and a press release and then ring them politely – with the blessing of your publishers of course. Local radio stations love local authors! You could do a competition and give away copies of your book.
 


After Publication


Start your school events and library events 
Send out press release to newspapers (your pr person may do this – check with them)
If you have any news stories – this is the time to use them – advances, film deals, winning competitions, your dog winning a dog show (for the local papers!)
 


Angles


An ‘Angle’ – something that makes you stand out as a person for pr purposes.
 
Some of the ones I’ve used:
Single mum
 Parent of teens and toddlers at the same time
 Partner of a hopeful Olympic sailor
 

Other people’s angles:
 Teacher – Eoin Colfer
 Librarian – Patricia Scanlan Movie geek and ex screen writer – Derek Landy
 


Anything that makes you different is good – and that you are prepared to talk about!
 
Everyone has something -
Do you keep bees?
Can you shoe a horse?
Do you dive? Travel a lot?
If so, you can write about it
 
 
Finally, I hope I’ve given you some ideas to think about.
You put 100% into writing your book – so why not put 100% into doing the best you can to promote that book? It deserves it. Writing for children, getting published and visiting and meeting young readers are rewarding and joyful experiences – and worth fighting lions and sweating blood for. I wish you all the best of luck with your own journey to publication. 
 
Good luck!

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by Oisín McGann

We’re Irish – you’d think we’d be better at talking. As I sit writing this, I can, with the click of my mouse, find out what books some teenager on the far side of the world has read this week. With a small movement of my finger, I can find information on organizations involved in publishing in just about every country in the world.

So it seems extraordinary that even though I have been involved in publishing as an illustrator for nearly seventeen years, and published as an author for more than six years, even though I do dozens of PR events every year, meet hundreds of professionals and thousands of kids and take an active interest in what’s going on in the world of children’s books, that there are still large, fundamental gaps in my knowledge of the children’s book industry in my own small country.

Ours is not a closed community. I have worked across many different areas of business and there is no sector more open, friendly and inclusive as the children’s books community – and the Irish do that kind of thing better than most. But perhaps because we are so adept at informal communication, we’re just not very systematic about spreading information. Most of what I know about this industry, I have learned by talking to people who know more than I do about any given area – and most of what they know outside of their own professional fields, they have picked up in the same way.

Finding my way like this is pleasantly social, interesting and often entertaining, but it’s also a very drawn out, a very hit-and-miss way of getting information about a market on which my career depends. For somebody coming into this industry for the first time or, indeed, anyone who simply wants to find out what they don’t yet know and how to fill in those gaps in their knowledge, there is no single place to go, no central reference point where they can look out over this industry as a whole and spot the areas they never knew existed.

This is particularly important for writers and illustrators, because it is virtually impossible to make a living solely from writing or illustrating books and selling them in Ireland. To make a career of it, you need to be able to branch out into different areas, markets and activities and connect with a wide range of people. You have to come at this industry from many different directions to make a book, distribute a book, advertise a book, sell a book or put a book into a child’s hands.

Which is why we at CBI have created cb info.

Our aim is not only to broaden the access to information within the industry, and improve communication between the different individuals and organizations within it, but also to help unify it and ensure it can speak with a strong voice to the ‘outside world’. With cb info, we want to provide a hub of information, a directory of relevant contacts, but also a regular source of relevant news, so that issues that affect our industry as a whole can be recognized, planned for and acted upon in a focused way – rather than the rather ad hoc and disparate approach we have tended to take in the past. And in doing so, we hope to help our industry speak with a strong and coherent voice to those outside our arena whose decisions and actions affect us.
Here’s a breakdown of the sections.

FAQ’s
The FAQ section is aimed primarily at writers and illustrators, and particularly to help those who are new to the industry. It provides short, simple answers to the most common questions that experienced professionals are asked about working in children’s books.

Viewpoint
The Viewpoint section is exactly that, an ongoing series of short articles, each on a given subject of interest to people in the industry, by someone with experience in that subject.

Directory
Each link in the Directory is labelled with a brief explanation, so you don’t have to click through to find out what it refers to. We intend to make this hub of websites related to children’s literature the most comprehensive – but relevant – network of contacts possible.

Guides
Each guide is a brief summary of a given profession, organization or issue connected with the industry. The purpose of this section is to provide a quick overview of the industry as a whole. From each guide, you can follow links to learn more from a dedicated website, where one exists.

Email Bulletin
Rather than restrict important news to members of any particular organization, we want to be able to spread that news as widely and quickly as possible. Our staff will gather news from many different sources, seek out the issues most relevant to our industry and pass it on in regular bulletins. This way, issues such as a review of the Artists’ Exemption, the age-banding controversy or the Google Book Settlement will not have to filter through many separate grapevines to – hopefully – find their way eventually to everybody’s ears over several months. If and when we hear about it, so will everyone who accepts our emails.

So far, we have only started sowing the seeds for our tree of information. We are looking for contributions from every facet of our industry. If your organization or profession is involved in children’s literature in any way, we want to hear from you. We want to know who you are, what you do, what you know – and we want other people to know about you.

And we want you to pass on the word about cb info. It will need a little help from everyone if it is going to work. There is no shortage of invaluable expertise and experience in the children’s book industry. Let’s put it where everyone can find it.

Oisín McGann - author and illustrator (www.oisinmcgann.com)