Path to Publication – Children's and YA Fiction

Part of the Brunel University New Writers Programme

Industry Panel: Path to Publication – Children’s and YA Fiction

A panel of industry experts will offer their insights and advice to aspiring authors on the process of publishing fiction for children and young adults. Attendees will learn about the role of literary agents and how writers, agents and publishers work together. You will also receive advice on how to approach finding an agent and publisher, and preparing your work for submission. Come along with any questions you have about how take the first steps towards finding a publisher for your work of fiction for young people.

Introducing the Panel:

Bella Pearson – Publisher, Guppy Books

Bella Pearson is the publisher and owner of Guppy Books, established in 2019, a small but mighty independent publisher of books for children aged between five and eighteen. Producing a small, bespoke list of high quality and entertaining books each year, Guppy titles have been shortlisted for all major UK children’s book awards as well as winning the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2023 and 2026. Bella previously worked for seventeen years at David Fickling Books and completed an MA in Children’s Literature at the University of Roehampton while working at an independent children’s specialist bookshop.

Julia Churchill, Literary Agent and Head of Children’s Books at AM Heath Literary Agency

Julia Churchill is a literary agent and head of the children’s department at A.M. Heath. She’s always on the lookout for a new children’s or YA author to work with.

Nazima Abdihalli – Senior Commissioning Editor, Hachette Children's Group
Nazima Abdillahi is a senior commissioning editor at Hachette Children's Group where she is building a list of diverse and character-driven stories that are doing something different across genres and age ranges, but especially in the young adult space. Some of her titles include Paper Dragons by Siobhan McDermott, which was Waterstones Children's Book of the Month (Feb 2024), Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma, and the bestselling Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. In 2023, Nazima was named a Bookseller Rising Star.

The panel will moderated by Dr Helen Cullen, a novelist and Reader in Creative Writing at Brunel University.

About this programme:

Brunel University is a very proud partner of the Nero Book Awards and the Nero New Writers Prize for unpublished writers. With the New Writers Programme, our aim is to support as many aspiring writers as possible with an online series of free creative writing workshops, and publishing webinars.

If you would like to develop your writing craft, learn from incredible authors, and understand more about how publishing works from industry experts, this series is for you.