DIPNet

How would you like to build up a network of contacts to help you through your professional career? Introducing yourself to strangers can be a daunting task, so we’ve put together some tips to help you meet like-minded professionals and shake up your career in publishing: 1) Ask for help and advice People really like giving advice and sharing their story. Just ask. It’s a great way to get the conversations started, plus you can learn so much this way. 2) Try to attend events on your own It’s a comfort to show up with a group of colleagues to events, …read more...

Benefits of Social Networking (Sam Coleman, Atwood Tate) I have relentlessly laboured the point to anyone that will listen that the digital age of publishing has brought departments within publishing houses closer together. The main reason is to work cohesively as a streamlined unit towards a prosperous digital future. The reality is that nobody really knows what they’re doing and wants to share as much information with as many like minded people as possible. This amalgamation of ideas, arguments, stories, theories, postulations and general fantasies is producing some of the most interesting conversations you will ever hear about publishing. The fact …read more...

Like many people in New York City, I am an immigrant. I grew up in Canada and arrived in the United States in the mid-’90s with the hazy goal of becoming a writer. A decade later I had earned my PhD in American Studies, taught children in community centers and after-school programs, and finally managed to publish my first picture book with a multicultural press (Lee & Low Books). When Bird won a number of awards, I believed other doors would automatically open but the publishing industry remained an arena that was largely off-limits for me. I began to blog about …read more...

Urbantopia Books is an award-winning publishing house dedicated to publishing culturally and socially diverse books. Our main aim is to bridge that gap in the publishing industry by producing diverse range contemporary books for readers of all ages. HISTORY Urbantopia Books was founded by Assistant Head Teacher Ola Laniyan Amoako in July 2009. When I first started my teaching career in Hackney I noticed the lack of culturally diverse or urban book for the older children in the school. Frustrated by this I embarked on writing modern, urban tales for children aged 9 and above, however when I attempted to find …read more...

I’ve just returned from the CWIG’s Conference in London - a day full of inspirational speakers and top tips about self promotion. Frank Boyce Cottrell spoke about the ‘enchantment of reading’ and a number of successful authors gave practical advice. But something was wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it until one of the speakers told us:  ‘there are enough writers already - we just need more readers.’ I looked around the room. That was it. Nearly all of the published children’s writers in the building were white (myself included)! Having attended a Muslim Writer’s Conference the previous month (full …read more...