BOOK LAUNCH BOOT CAMP: STRATEGY, ONLINE PROMOTION & SCHOOL VISITS

Originally from America, Mo moved to London because she wanted to live abroad but spoke no foreign languages. After a brief and unsuccessful stint as a serving wench at the Tower of London Mo found work as an actress and comedy performer. It was when she toured the UK as a storyteller that she started writing for kids. Now, Mo lives in South London with her husband, her two kids and her two (slightly bitey) cats. Mo’s New York Times Bestselling series MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH has been translated into 14 different languages. She writes, picture books, young fiction and graphic novels including AGENT MOOSE (Illustrated by Jess Bradley) which is out with Scholastic in the UK and Macmillan in the US. Her latest young fiction series, HONEY'S HIVE (illustrated by Aya Kakeda), with Anderson Press is out in April. Mo’s latest picture book, HUSH LITTLE ROCKET (illustrated by Alexandra Cook) is out with Macmillan in the US in March. Mo has toured extensively across the USA and the UK and has also visited schools and festivals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mo has been a SCBWI volunteer for about twelve years and loves organizing PULSE events with Candy Gourlay and doing Boot Camp with Candy and Sara Grant!

Sara writes and edits fiction for children and teens. DARK PARTIES, her first young adult novel, won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Crystal Kite Award for Europe. Ten of her books have been traditionally published, including two series – CHASING DANGER, an action-adventure series for tweens, and MAGIC TRIX, a funny magical series for young readers. As a freelance editor of series fiction, she has worked on fourteen different series and edited nearly 100 books. She consults with Storymix, the inclusive fiction studio (www.storymix.co.uk). She’s taught master’s courses on writing for children/teens at Goldsmiths University and the University of Winchester. She has given writing workshops in the US, UK and Europe. She co-founded Undiscovered Voices – which has launched the writing careers of more than a hundred authors and illustrators, who now have published more than 400 children’s books. (www.undiscoveredvoices.com)

Candy Gourlay has written picture books, young fiction, middle grade and young adult – which is great because she can now do school visits for all ages. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Waterstones, the Guardian, the Blue Peter, the Branford Boase and the coffee book awards (Costa and Nero). Her latest novel WILD SONG has just been longlisted for the Carnegie. Candy, who has worked as a web and graphic designer, was an early adopter of digital platforms, blogging, and creating video for social platforms. She has given presentations on digital opportunity, virtual events and author platforms for Booktrust, the Society of Authors, SCBWI and the Bookseller Conference. Candy has been a SCBWI volunteer for more than 20 years.

I am a public Children's Librarian for Bromley Libraries based at Orpington Library but also part of the Children's Team helping to deliver events and activities across all the libraries in Bromley. I am very active in the Youth Libraries Group (YLG) and passionate about children's literature and library services. I have been a YLG SE Carnegie and Kate Greenaway judge and in 2021 won the YLG award in recognition of my work with children and young people. I am currently the South-East regional representative on the YLG National Committee.

Fleur Sinclair is the owner of the Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent, winner of best independent bookshop for the UK and Ireland at the 2021 Bookseller Industry Awards, and winner of best national bookshop the 2022 Muddy Stilettoes Awards. She is Vice President of the Booksellers Association and sits on the board of Bookshop.org.

Nina Douglas has been a publicist for over 20 years, both working at major UK publishing houses as well as working as a freelance publicist. Her time in-house was spent working at Scholastic, Hodder Children’s Books, Random House Children’s Books/ David Fickling Books, Orion and Hachette, and she was associate PR Director for Barrington Stoke. Nina now runs her own business, ND PR. In 2021 Nina launched an author/ illustrator training strand to her business with Lit Up, soon to be expanded with a new offering, the Pocket Publicist. Nina can be found mostly on Instagram - @ninacdouglas And also (less frequently) on Twitter - @ninadouglas

Frances is currently the Head of Children's Sales at Bloomsbury, leading the UK Sales team and creating market leading strategies for best selling brands and authors such as the Bunny Adventures, Katherine Rundell and Harry Potter. Prior to this she worked at Nosy Crow for over seven years, selling in the award winning Felt Flaps: Where's Mr/Mrs series, as well as Pip and Posy, Shifty McGifty and Christopher Edge.