Pike - Anthony McGowan - Feature - Editor Interview with Mairi Kidd from Barrington Stoke

Back in 2013 we were very luck to have run a 3D review of Anthony McGowan's Barrington Stoke YA novel Brock. As part of the feature we interviewed his editor Mairi Kidd [press here to read]. this summer the sequel to Brock, Pike was published, so we have caught up with Mairi again, to ask her about editing sequels.

Is it any easier or harder to edit a sequel than the first book?

Different books present different challenges and with a sequel, a series or a companion piece, there is a little added challenge in that it's important to ensure continuity across all of the installments. In my experience, though, authors get to know their characters and setting so well in series that the first drafts of second and third installments are often stronger than early drafts of the first book. Perhaps editors of George R R Martin-esque sagas would give you a very different answer, though!

As a children’s book editor / publisher, do you have a time frame in which to publish a sequel for it still to appeal to the readers of the first book?

When it comes to big commercial 'continuities' - like the Twilight series, say - it's a case of the sooner the better. The idea is that you want to catch the readers who loved the first book, and because children grow up so quickly, you really do have to move fast. We publish series such as Tom Palmer's Rugby Academy in this way to create anticipation and excitement - in that case we published installments every six months, and publication dates were linked to rugby seasons.

On the other hand a later sequel can give the original book a new lease of life and introduce it to a new generation of readers. An extreme example of that is To Kill a Mockingbird, sales of which are apparently up 6600% since the publication of the sequel was announced.

Why do you think children/teens like sequels so much?

I think it's human nature to want more of something we love, and that's even more true of children, who are in a learning-heavy phase of development and can really benefit from revisiting familiar content. That's why young children love to return to the same book over and over again. With a series, the first book does the hard work of introducing the characters, setting and so on, and future installments can take the story and the characters further and further. Think Discworld, where Granny Weatherwax starts out as a minor character and becomes a force of nature.

I do think there's a danger that commercial considerations can result in slender ideas being overstretched by sequels that are unnecessary in creative terms. For my money The Hunger Games is an example of a book that didn't really need two sequels, and I don't think she's really in control of the sequels to the same degree. And personally I hate books like Mrs De Winter or Death Comes to Pemberley that take a gorgeous novel and try to weave in a sequel that necessitates untying the ends the novel has neatly tied up. It's like a published version of the sort of online fan-fiction that needs to know what happens in the bedroom between Jane Eyre and Rochester. Although speaking of them, Wide Sargasso Sea is an example of a very good revisiting because it challenges the very fabric of the original. Maybe that's the key to those sort of sequels - you can't love the original too much.

Why did you choose to commission a sequel to Brock?

We didn't actually ask Anthony for one; he offered the idea. In many ways I don't think Pike is a sequel to Brock - they feel to me like stand-alone books featuring the same characters. On some levels I love Pike even more than Brock. There's a moment when Nicky thinks about the fact that he takes the 'big brother' role as Kenny's almost-minder but actually he's the little brother and right there and then he wants his big brother. It broke my heart. In a good way.

What is your favourite thing about Pike?

That scene between Nicky and Kenny is just one of the many in which Anthony - and to a degree Nicky - lets Kenny grow. That, for me, makes the novel fantastically uplifting. And of course a pike bites someone's privates. What's not to like about that?

Mairi Kidd - Book In Every Stocking

Today's Book In every Stocking suggestion comes from Mairi Kidd, MD of Barrington Stoke.

Please come back and check out the the other book stocking filler suggestions!

If you want to join the campaign, please tweet using the hashtag #BookinEveryStocking2013. 

Or if you have Stocking suggestion do write a letter to Santa and e-mail it to us at SpaceOnTheBookshelf@yahoo.com and we'll try and post it on the blog.

3D Review - BROCK - Editor Interview - Mairi Kidd

We at SOTB know it takes more than writer to make a book, so we have an interview with the editor of Brock, Mairi Kidd, who is also the MD OF Barrington Stoke.

What was your favourite children’s book as a child?

I don't know that I had one - I was more concerned with quantity than quality when it came to reading. I remember gobbling up Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, the Green Gables books, Lois Duncan, Judy Blume and - like any self-respecting Scottish child - The Broons and Oor Wullie. I also read my mum's childhood library, which included two long-forgotten series I loved, one about Nicholas Thomas the naughty kitten and the other about a crime-fighting nurse called Cherry Ames.

What is your favourite children’s book as an adult?

Again, so hard to answer! If I had to choose, then my favourite picture book would be a tie between Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are' and Jon Klassen's 'I Want my Hat Back', and my favourite novel between Sonya Harnett's 'Silver Donkey' and Alan Garner's 'Owl Service'.

What do you think makes children’s books so inspirational?

At the younger end, I think the visual aspect of children's books is hugely appealing and I'm delighted to see 5-8s and 8-12s using more illustration and more imaginative design. I wish there was more of a market for picture books for older children as the examples that do exist are so wonderful. I think that there is a sense of fun in children's fiction that is lacking in publishing for adults, and in more serious works there is a tendency to be quite direct in emotional terms. Children's books don't pull their punches, and I think that's something adults respond to.

What do you love about Brock and what makes it stand out?

First and foremost, I love Kenny. As soon as I had read the first chapters, he was firmly lodged him in my head as a real person. I had the clearest picture of him. And I love the dynamic Anthony creates between Nicky and Kenny, the combination of fondness and frustration Nicky feels. It reminds me a little of the relationship between the two brothers in the Lasse Hallstrom film 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?', which is one of my all-time favourites.

I don't think Anthony is fully with me on this, but I reckon that one of his great strengths is the humour he can inject into gloom. Nicky's aside as he faces the local hard-case and his terrifying dogs is a case in point. '[They were called] Satan and Slag. That tells you all you need to know about Jezbo.'

Ultimately, I think 'Brock' stands out because Anthony McGowan is one of those really special writers who can nail a sense of place and a character's voice so completely that the physical book seems to vanish and the reader is transported to somewhere else entirely.

What made you want to work in children’s publishing? What, more specifically, made you want to work for Barrington Stoke?

My parents both worked in education and I think I'm hard-wired to want to work with and for children as a result. We're also a very bookish family, and so publishing was an obvious choice, although not my first - I worked in arts development and broadcasting first, usually in my 'other' language, Scottish Gaelic.

I first got to know Barrington Stoke books when I worked in Gaelic-language publishing for schools. It's hard in a minority language to offer children enough experience of text to achieve reading fluency, and as a result their reading ability in the minority language tends to be weak. I was delighted to discover that there was a company out there actually producing books for less able readers that were still satisfying reads, and I promptly commissioned a number of translated editions. When I decided that I wanted to relocate to Edinburgh after years in the Western Isles, I had the incredible good fortune to be approached by Barrington Stoke to join the company, and I still can't believe my luck. The only thing better, in my opinion, than publishing books for children who love to read is publishing books for children who don't... yet.

Barrington Stoke books are designed for challenged readers. Does this impact how you edit Barrington Stoke titles?

Very much so. In addition to the standard editorial processes every good publisher uses, we carry out a specialised edit for accessibility. On the one hand this is a very technical process involving specific attention to syntax and incorporating fairly complex reading and language theory. On the other hand, it requires creativity and intuition to ensure that we don't prioritise the needs of our readers to the detriment of the text.

How do you find authors to write Barrington Stoke Title, do they approach you or do you commission them?

A bit of both. We've been supported by an amazing range of authors from the off, but we're always keen to build our roster of authors as we know that challenged readers desperately want to fit in by reading the same well-loved authors their peers can access. Some wonderful writers have come to us with ideas; others have joined us after downright pestering on our part!

Are there any challenges / rewards when editing a Barrington Stoke book?

The big challenge is carrying out the accessibility edit without losing the author's voice. It can feel like vandalism to take a text that reads beautifully and request changes. Luckily our authors are without exception gracious and willing to work with us to reach a version with which we are all comfortable. Working with the authors is a huge reward in itself - I sometimes have to pinch myself. But the biggest reward comes in the postbag - the flood of letters we receive from parents telling us that our books have broken down the reading barrier for their children. That's what it's all about, in the end of the day.

We have a copy of BROCK to giveaway! 

Just e-ail SpaceOnTheBookshelf@yahoo.com with your name address and Brock in the subject line.

Good Luck!