How a story becomes a book
Editors explain how they choose what to publish.
In 2013, the publishing house David Fickling Books split from a larger publisher and became an independent company. It’s still quite small; it publishes 30 to 40 books a year including the Bunny vs Monkey comic book series by Jamie Smart and novels by SF Said.
Rosie Fickling and Anthony Hinton are two of the editors who have worked for the company for 10 years. “We try to choose the best, most fun and most enjoyable books,” Fickling tells The Week Junior. “We focus on a small number of highquality books we really believe in.”
Their job, Hinton explains, is to read lots of stories that writers send in, decide which ones they like and work with the authors “to get the most out of their story”. Hinton says he knows a story will make a good book if he is “swept away” from the very first page.
Fickling says editors have to really enjoy reading. If you want to become an editor, read, read and read some more. Then you will get to a point where you recognise if a book is good – even if you don’t personally enjoy it. The more you read, says Hinton, the more you understand about how a book works. “When you are reading, think about what you liked and why,” he says, as well as where and when you got bored. Ask yourself, “What was the best thing in it?” One of Fickling’s favourite books is Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Hinton says one of his favourite books is Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell. They are both working on lots of exciting books coming out this year, including a new comic book by Neill Cameron and a non-fiction book all about rewilding (reintroducing certain animals and plants into an environment).