Earlyworks Press Fiction for Children or Teens Competition

www.orionbooks.co.uk

www.thesyp.org.uk

Nicola Crossley 

Nicola works at the Orion Publishing Group, and has had experience selling titles from across all of their lists. She will soon be moving to their illustrated non-fiction imprint, Weidenfield & Nicolson, which works with authors such Richard Hammond, Michael Palin and Kevin McCloud. To date, she has had first hand experience working with agents and authors, and has followed books from acquisition through to publication.

In her spare time, Nicola is the Vice Chair Young Publishers (SYP); a non-profit organisation which aims to assist those trying to get into the publishing industry. Over the last year she has created a vibrant events programme on subjects such as audio and digital publishing, writing for teenagers, as well as how to write and publish a bestselling book. She is currently a volunteer for English PEN, and is working with their Writers in Prison programme to create visits with some of Orion’s authors.

Alan Gibbons

Alan Gibbons was a school teacher for some time and now works as a full-time writer and independent educational consultant. He is also a regular contributor to education newspapers and magazines such as Times Education Supplement and Junior Education.

He has written many books for children and young adults, and a fantasy sequence, Lost Souls. The Number 7 Shirt (2008), a book for reluctant readers, is the latest in a series of other books he has written for Barrington Stoke.

His books for teenage audiences often deal with difficult issues, and have included stories about bullying, domestic voilence and the effects of terrorism.

Alan won the Blue Peter Book Award: The Book I Couldn't Put Down in 2000 for Shadow of the Minotaur (2000), and has been shortlisted twice for the Carnegie Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Prize.

find out more at www.alangibbons.com

Ali Sparkes

Ali Sparkes, author of the Shapeshifter and Monster Makers books, is published by Oxford University Press, Scholastic and (on the website) BBC Radio Four. 

Her brilliantly original 'Frozen in Time' was shortlisted for the West Sussex Children's Book Award, and is now a contender for the Coventry Inspiration Awards 2010 and the Blue Peter Book Awards (Book I Couldn't Put Down section). 

Ali also does a lot of work with schools, and is currently busy with the launch of her own independent publication of 'Miganium', the back story of Tyrone, a character who pops up in the last two books of the Shapeshifter series.

find out more at www.alisparkes.com

PS (posted 3rd March 2010) 'Frozen in Time' has just been awarded the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Well done Ali - a worthy winner!

Kate O'Hearn

find out more at www.kateohearn.com

Rosalie Warren

Find out more at
www.rosalie-warren.co.uk

Rosalie Warren took early retirement from her university lecturing post four years ago and since then has been pursuing her dream to become a writer. Her first break came when she was shortlisted in an Earlyworks Press competition in 2007, and Circaidy Gregory Press published 'Charity’s Child', her novel for YA/adults, in 2008. In the following year, Robert Hale published her next novel, 'Low Tide, Lunan Bay'. Rosalie has completed a third novel for adults and is working on a fourth. She also writes for children, and recently her novel for age 11+, 'Coping with Chloe', was accepted for publication by Phoenix Yard Books. 

Rosalie loves to write across a variety of genres and age groups, which doesn’t necessarily help in finding publishers, but she is determined to go on doing it just the same. She enjoys commenting on others’ work and belongs to a number of writing groups, both on and offline. Without the advice and support of her fellow-writers, she would have given up long ago. She is an enthusiastic collector, not only of rejection slips but of first editions of her favourite books.

Kay Green

find out more at www.kaygreen.co.uk

In 2003, Andrew Hook, owner of Elastic Press, offered to publish a collection of her short stories - 'Jung's People'. She went on to contribute work to some of Elastic Press's award winning anthologies, and so life changes. Kay became fascinated by the publishing process - what is published by whom, and why - and what is READ by whom, and why. She founded the Earlyworks Press Writers' and Reviewers' Club after the discovery that once their books are published, authors suddenly discover that they need to know an awful lot about publicity and marketing and there doesn't seem to be anyone there to help them learn it.

Kay now works as a freelance editor, administrator of the Earlyworks Press Writers' and Reviewers' club and, as editor of her own imprint, Circaidy Gregory Press.