Neon Squid The launch list
Animal Sidekicks: Amazing Stories of Symbiosis in Animals and Plants Macken Murphy, Dragan Kordić (illus) 5th April, £12.99, 9781838991531
Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archaeology Stefan Milosavljevich, Sam Caldwell (illus) 5th April, £14.99, 9781838991562
The Book of Sisters: Biographies of Incredible Siblings Through History Katie Nelson & Olivia Meikle 5th April, £12.99, 9781838991487
angle. To me, a squid seems a strange mascot, but actually they’re really cool and interesting, so it spoke to a lot of underlying themes that we want to convey with our books and as a whole.”
Neon Squid will publish in the US and UK simultane-
ously, with the first six books coming next month. The launch list encompasses the key areas of history, culture and science, with an an ambition to cover “core topics but in a slightly unusual way” and titles created with the idea of developing a series in mind. The line-up includes The Book of Sisters, a collection of biographies of notable sisters throughout history, and Animal Sidekicks, an illustrated introduction to the concept of symbiosis featuring pairs of animal friends. Another key principle of the books is that they promote “learning by stealth”. Priddy explains: “Our books are very educational, but… through amazing illustrations and fun stories, we want them to almost look like fiction.” As Clark puts it: “We really want to make non- fiction the star of the show.”
Original thinking
The team comes up with all the ideas for the imprint’s books in-house and then looks for experts to write them. Several of those they have signed so far are podcasters and YouTubers who are “so used to explaining tricky topics in a way that is digestible and exciting, which really lends itself to our kind of publishing”, according to Macdonald. She says they also spend a lot of time trying to find illustrators “that will really bring each individual subject to life”. They have recently turned to TikTok to find new writers too. “Because they are not traditional authors, their fresh approaches to things can oſten be really exciting,” comments Clark, adding: “We want to be able to access as wide a pool of people as we can, because there are so many different topics we want to cover and so many different ways we want to tell a story.”
e to access as e are so many
Reflecting on the challenges of seting up an imprint during a pandemic, there were practical issues. The team is used to working very collaboratively but once they figured out ways to do this virtually, it made their processes “significantly more efficient”, says Priddy. The trio works closely with Verost’s team and MCPG’s USPG’ sales and marketing team. For Verost, the widespread adoption of remote working due to the pandemic was a positive as “the distance from the US to the UK has
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TheBookseller.com
The Hospital: The Inside Story Dr Christle Nwora, Ginnie Hsu (illus) 5th April, £9.99, 9781838991524
Bugs (A Day in the Life): What Do Bees, Ants, and Dragonflies Get up to All Day?
Dr Jessica L Ware, Chaaya Prabhat (illus) 5th April, £7.99, 9781838991555
Big Cats (A Day in the Life): What Do Lions, Tigers, and Panthers Get up to All Day?
Tyus D Williams, Chaaya Prabhat (illus) 5th April, £7.99, 9781838991548
A squid seems a strange mascot, but actually they’re really cool ... it spoke to a lot of underlying themes that we want to convey with our books
Joanne Clark
never been shorter”. She expands: “We’ve been able to do so many virtual events with both US and UK tastemakers simultaneously. So this virtual world has actually made launching an imprint based across the ocean seamless.” Neon Squid is “very much aiming to be an international publisher”, says Priddy, and as such, it tries to ensure its products “appeal to as many countries as possible… not just because we want to cover these territories, but also because we think it makes for a more well-rounded book”. To start with, the imprint will publish around 15 titles per year, bringing out around one per month in 2022 following the April launch. But Macdonald hopes that “as we grow, our list can grow gradually as well”. Their ambitions for growth will be supported by the recent addition of new editorial assistant, Malu Rocha.
Natural selection
Further titles coming this year include a series called Young Zoologist, which focuses on animals (the first two will be about the giant panda and the humpback whale). Priddy says: “It’s such an exciting chance to find scientists, who have spent their whole lives studying one animal and know all these amazing facts that kids would absolutely lap up. I think it’s one of most exciting parts of the job actually, trying to find these people to work with.” There will also be books about rewilding and aliens coming later this year. Clark says: “We have still got dinosaurs and topics that we know kids love, but looking at these slightly more niche topics signals what we’re about.” Looking ahead, the team also wants to start bringing out books for a slightly older age range and in different formats. The team will be at Bologna Children’s Book Fair meet- ing foreign publishers and at the London Book Fair too, where they will hold a celebration to mark the release of their first titles during the fair. Clark says: “We have been working on these books for a long time, so we are really excited to get them out there. We are really proud of what we have done so far… We think we have made products that will really stand the test of time.” Priddy adds: “Because we have been working on our books for two years, they are a real labour of love. We hope we can get into as many into kids’ hands as possible because we think they’re really good books. And then, hopefully in 20 years’ time, there might be an archaeologist starting out in their career who was inspired by one of our books as a child.”
ing foreign pub where they will their first titles working on the excited to get th we have done s will really stand we have been w eal labou
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CHAAYA PRABHAT ILLUSTRATOR 19
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