Charley Rogers – Editor Teach Primary / Teach Reading and Writing
Target age 5-11
Teach Primary – 8 issues a year / Teach Reading and Writing – 2 issues a year (roughly spring
and autumn)
Interested in books which relate to teachers / the classroom and resources which can be
used in the classroom along the curriculum.
Books slots include – author interview, author rapid fire Q&A (in Teach Reading and
Writing), 5 book reviews of approx. 100 words per issue
‘What a good one looks like’ feature – an exclusive extract from a books with annotated
notes from the author, Teach work with a literacy expert to create a resource pack around
the extract. Works particularly well with authors who have an existing following in
classrooms, authors who are teachers or who have teaching experience.
Teach Reading and Writing – 10 books on a theme in each issue egs include refugees, nature
– often tied to a calendar event.
Digital offering is mostly resources – either created for ‘What a good one looks like’ or
existing resources which they can include and link back to author / publisher website.
What stands out in a pitch?
– Authors who have teaching experience
– Relevance to the curriculum
– Innovative approaches to writing / different stories / new ways of approaching
existing formats
– Above all must have a link to teachers / teaching
Send pitches via email – happy to receive PDFs
Lead times – approx. 2/3 months ahead of print date. Check forward features doc (to be
circulated)
Contact for Teach Reading and Writing is Lydia Grove
Contact for Teach Secondary is Callum Fauser
Chris Towers – Senior Reporter, First News
Weekly publication, target age 7-11 – sold via the newsstand and family and schools
subscriptions. Currently approx. 1,000 school subscriptions
Chris covers news / world news
Books coverage – 1 page per issue, features include:
– Quick fire Q&A
– Features about characters / fact-files about series
– Author interviews
– Review – by readers
– News stories on Festivals, awards, anniversaries etc
– 5 recommended reads on a theme
Aim is to inspire reading for pleasure (so any genres worls – aim to be accessible) and
writing – so often interesting to hear about authors’ journeys to becoming an author.
Digital offering – via the App which includes 5 news stories a day. Author interviews that
have a lot of content can spill over onto this.
What stands out in a pitch?
– Key information – why is it relevant right now? Tied to a calendar event eg
Halloween / mental health awareness week
– Like specific pitches with feature ideas
Prefers finished copies and PDFs to advance proofs – will only send finished copies out to
schools for kids review
Lead times – 2/3 months (currently planning for May / June although there are always slots
to fill with shorter notice when stories could be useful for different pages eg science
In person meetings are often useful
Press day – Tuesday so Friday, Monday and Tuesday am are very busy. Tuesday PM, Weds
and Thurs are days with more time to respond to pitches.
Entertainment pages – Hannah Timson
UK New pages – Charlie Baker
Vanessa Harriss – Editor The Week Junior
Weekly magazine aimed at readers age 8-11 with a focus on current affairs. Pages include
science, sports, animals, crafts, gaming
2 books pages per issue – focus is on print, readers of the magazine are also big book
readers. Aim to encourage Reading for Pleasure so books focus is across fiction, non fiction,
graphic novels with the core target age being 10.
Books pages include – Book of the Week with author interview, 5 books on a theme e.g
women and girls in science / books inspired by the cinema. Contact – Katherine Woodfine
Book club page – wider page bringing in wider world subjects which can be an author
interview if topical, book bites – recommending backlist titles, big TWJ Book Award
coverage with shortlisted authors etc
No digital except podcast which ties to the print issue and can include author interviews
What stands out in a pitch?
– Relevance to the age group (they are sometimes cautious around the upper end of
the age range)
– Theming around calendar events
Contact via email – sent press releases, happy to receive proofs / copies
Lead times – months in advance especially for big calendar events
Contact – Katherine Woodfine for books page / Flora Neville (on parental leave) or Kate
Overy for book club page
All contact emails will be circulated in the next PPC email.
Teach Primary
Mag for primary school teachers
Teachers and resources as much as possible
Teachers and SLT
Books – anything that can be used in classroom for learning experience
Like to have resources alongside
Sometimes a Q&A in Teach Reading & Writing – teacher focused
Book worm audiences
Feature lead needs to be linked to curriculum
5 spots for book reviews. 8 issues a year.
WAGOLL – teach primary and teach reading and writing
Teach reading and writing x2 a year
WAGOLL goes online too – resource packs
Teach reading and writing – do 10 books in both issues, roundup of 10 books on a theme;
different on each issue
Lydia best contact for teach reading and writing
Do commission digital content – also goes in magazine
Focus on resources for online offering – can host resources which publishers have already
created
Digital manager will do stuff online
Most attention – if author has teaching experience is always useful, they know what teachers
are looking for; a curriculum topic also helpful – new way to approach a type of writing (portal
etc)
Best way to send info via email-PDFs good. Easier for them. But also like proofs.
Lead times long. Contacted 2-3 months in advance of print dates (available online for press
dates and calendar issues they are focusing on)
Can have tea in Cardiff
8 issues a year of teach primary. 2 teach reading and writing
Lydia Grove – reading and writing contact
First news
1000 schools across UK
News stories and world news and books
Newsround newspaper version
Author interviews, quick fire interviews, fact files, timeline of what’s happened in the series
Reviews by readers
Can do classic book features
Want to get kids reading and writing
How authors started writing is good
Can be fiction or non-fiction. Audiobooks or graphic novels.
Age range 7-14 year olds
Can do more content on the app- with content from authors
Good to suggest why a book is relevant now in pitch email – a good date to tie it to
something
Publishers suggest an idea of what the author could do – useful for them to come with ideas
of how they can use it – can use maps/images as well
Has lots of proofs
But would prefer to receive the final version or PDFs. Proofs are great but prefer final version
or PDF
Lead times – probably earlier the better. Weekly content planner. 2-3 months lead time is
useful. Planning mid-June content now.
Something not on books page might be relevant on another page – science or entertainment
Useful to talk to publishers on coffee – easier to hear about exciting books
Books to look forward to in 2025 useful to know ahead
Press days – press on Tuesday and issue comes out on Friday. Friday afternoon and
Monday, Tuesday morning can be tricky. Going straight to press.
Best days to get in touch Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursdays
Hannah Tipson writes entertainment page – covers celebrity authors
Sports page and sports journalist too
Astronaut went on science page
Charlie Baker looks after UK news page
Vanessa Harriss – The Week Junior
Current affairs main focus
Weekly
Sports, animals, science, gaming, puzzles, craft
Focus on print – keen book readers
Book Awards – Anna Bassi editorial director, in charge of book awards
Lots of different subjects and ages
Aim for 10 years old
Encouraging children to read – fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, biographies
Increase diversity and reflect readers
Books pages
Katherine Woodfine does book of the week and authors Q&A
Readers recommend, little review
5 books about (with a theme)
Group things together in themes – eg. Books on international day of women and girls in
science
Book club – second page.
Book bites – books from previous years. Quote, cover about another classic books
On my shelf – readers shelfs
Space on page talks about book awards, interviews, etc – tie-in with the book awards
Careful with age ranges – working with parents
Not that interested in celebrity authors
Themes around a date
Like review copies. Press release via email
Podcast – short author interviews. Record a little interview with them on podcast every week.
Ties in with mag. Record on Thursday.
Press on Wednesday for magazine
Lead times months in advance. Far in advance.
Would like breakfast meetings but time is tricky
Like showcases at publishers
Monday-Wednesday busy.
Flora Neville books on mat leave, coming back soon. Kate Overy mat cover. Katherine
Woodfine
For Book of the Week it would be Katherine Woodfine katherine.woodfine@gmail.com
For Five Books About it would be between Katherine and kate.overy@futurenet.com but
Kate is doing mat cover for flora.neville@futurenet.com and Flora returns mid-May.
For author interviews and books news, it would be Kate/Flora and they can liaise with Eve
Gardiner for possible inclusion on the podcast.
For Book Awards and nominations, it would be anna.bassi@futurenet.com and I think
nominations open in a couple of weeks.
Themes can be spread across the magazine – so can spread out books throughout the mag
Simon Armstrong BA
Represents 95% bookshops in UK – including chains, waterstones, etc. Any retailer that
sells books are primary or secondary product
Public consumer campaigns
Came in-house in November for PR. Indie bookshop week and bookshop day.
Currently pitching cultural calendar days – eg valentines in bookshops
Will share cultural calendar with publicists in case PR have news stories
Want to hear from authors who are booksellers or past booksellers. Do a lot of media
coverage. Do like using authors who have personal connections to bookshops
Can talk about Indie bookshops
Promote bookshops not books/authors
Indie book of the month – can’t guarantee store base
200 children’s bookshops indies take part in indie book of the month
And 800 book groups. Create POS etc for indie book of the month and social promotion and
trade promotion and consumer and trade press release. Bauer and Magic FM for them to
cover children’s book interview slot monthly. And guaranteed PR on month by month
Publishers should submit book for indie book of the month for submission form
Have bookshop focus in marketing plans – passion for indie bookshops
Can do regional pitches for indie bookshop events
Not debut focused, authors who work with indies a lot
Questions
Teach Secondary – who is the best contact there? How many issues do they do a year? Do
they offer anything else? Same curriculum links.
8 issues a year. Longer gap over Christmas and summer. Contact Callum Faser