Introducing Inside Story: A Unique Project
United Publishers of Armidale is delighted and honoured to be collaborating with the New England Writers’ Centre on the unique and innovative Inside Story project, centred around the creation and production of children’s books. The Inside Story project, funded by a generous grant from Create NSW under its Arts Restart Strategic Initiative program, has a twin focus on the production of a fantastic book (published in May 2022) and the launch of a capacity-building professional development workshop (held in March 2021).
The book, Inside Story: the wonderful world of writing, illustrating and publishing children’s books, is published in May 2022 by UPA Books, our new collaborative imprint. Details: ISBN 9780648815457 RRP $29.99 Compiled by Sophie Masson, Kathy Creamer, Peter Creamer and Beattie Alvarez Edited by Jen Scanlan and Sharnee Rawson Designed by Rae Ainsworth Published by UPA Books, May 2022 Trim size: 240x240mm 120 pages Distributed nationwide by Peribo Inside Story is a fabulous showcase of the richness and diversity of contemporary Australian children's books. An attractive full-colour production, it is packed with tips, advice, illuminating quotes and anecdotes. The stellar list of contributors includes writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents and reviewers from across Australia. Inside Story is an invaluable resource and reference book for aspiring writers, illustrators, editors and designers, and will also appeal to anyone interested in Australian children’s books and is perfect for both the educational and general markets. Published by UPA Books, the new collaborative imprint of United Publishers of Armidale, Inside Story is a joint enterprise of Armidale-based publishers Christmas Press and Little Pink Dog Books. It was commissioned by the New England Writers' Centre, with the generous support of Create NSW. If you are interested in pre-orders, find out more at Little Pink Dog Books, Christmas Press, and the New England Writers' Centre. Watch some great videos about the making of the book on the UPA You Tube channel, here. There's a special Facebook page, too. |
Meanwhile, the Inside Story professional development day, themed specifically around children’s picture books, was held in Armidale on March 27, 2021, and presented by UPA. It featured talks and presentations on all aspects of the creation and production of children’s picture books, from the first glimmer of an idea for a text to the drafting of illustration roughs and storyboards for the book’s visual world, right through to the many production processes that eventually end with the book appearing in bookshops. There was also a fun interactive activity, which put people in the publisher’s shoes in the creation and production of an imaginary picture book. The workshop was a sold-out success, with participants coming from all over the region and a wide range of people represented across the sector, from aspiring writers and illustrators to new editors and designers, and even a prospective publisher. Feedback was excellent with attendees remarking how fantastic it was that it was about the whole process of creating a picture book, not just writing or illustrating, as might be more usual, but all the aspects of production, publication and beyond too. We hope that this workshop might become a model for many more such professional development opportunities in the future.
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Look out for the Inside Story book in May, available in all good bookshops!
The Inside Story project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW