Mark's Say, March 2018
Last year the manager of Readings Kids in Carlton, Angela Crocombe, attended a children’s book conference in the US. Her American colleagues told her about their Teen Advisory Boards – groups of teen readers who read new Young Adult books and write reviews. Inspired, Angela talked to her Readings colleagues and a call went out, asking teens between 15 and 19 to contact us if they were passionate about books and wanted to learn about the book industry. Angela was inundated by requests to join the 10-member board. At the first meeting she wasn’t sure what would happen; one of the things she wanted was to show these young people what our industry is like, and what opportunities there might be for them to work with books. As Angela said, ‘I studied economics and accounting; it was totally wrong for me. I wanted to show young people that they have choices.’
The board has evolved and each month Angela organises a guest speaker for them. So far agents, authors, editors and cover designers have come along to talk about their work, what they love about it, how they got there and where they see it going. The teens love it and so do the guests. Last month, YA author Clare Atkins visited to talk about being a writer and about her new novel, Between Us. Clare loved getting the board’s feedback and hearing directly from her audience.
The Board members also get lots of advance copies of books to read and in return Readings gets reviews and feedback about the books. The members also write blogs for our website, most recently they wrote about what they read over summer. At a recent meeting the book that the members were most excited to get advance copies of was Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.
They also tell us about the kinds of events and authors they’d like to meet. One member said the author they most wanted to meet was Amie Kaufman, who co-wrote the bestselling Illuminae Files series with Jay Kristoff. That member is interviewing both authors this month at the launch of their new book, Obsidio. The interview will be available as a podcast on the Readings website later this month.
The current board finishes their term in July this year, so if there are any teens out there who would like to join the new board, email [email protected]
On the subject of the Readings Podcast, it’s been my great pleasure to record interviews with two people I greatly admire. Bob Sessions was publishing director at Penguin Books for 22 years until his retirement in 2013. He published the likes of Ruth Park, Graeme Base, Thea Astley, Tom Kenneally and Geoffrey Blainey. He began his publishing career in 1964, so he has an amazing perspective on the Australian industry. My other recent interview was with Robert Manne about his new collection of essays, On Borrowed Time. The title essay is a moving account of his recent illness and the process of learning to live again. The rest of the book contains his insightful views on a wide range of topics.
While my interview of Bob Sessions is yet to be published, you can listen to my conversation with Robert Manne now. Find it on our website, Soundcloud and iTunes.
