Team
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The Writers’ Advice Centre for Children’s Books is managed by Louise Jordan. Because she believes that writers like to know who they are working with, she has deliberately limited her team to just four experienced editors, plus one specialist copy-editor.
Louise Jordan
Handles Picture Book submissions and Young Fiction. She is also the sole tutor on the Home Study Course and is part of the team working on both the Mentoring Scheme and the Consultancy Service.
Louise was one of the original founders back in 1994 and has been in the children’s publishing industry for over twenty years. Trained as a journalist Louise initially worked for IPC Magazines in their youth sector. She was fiction editor on Oh Boy! Magazine before leaving to write fiction herself – magazines and books.
After having children of her own she studied children’s writing at The City Literary Institute where she was tutored by renowned children’s author Elizabeth Hawkins, and worked alongside prize-winning author Mallory Blackman.
Before founding the Advice Centre Louise worked as Head Reader for Puffin. She is a previous columnist for Writers News and Writing Magazine and still reads for a number of children’s publishers, including Puffin, Dorling Kindersley, Ladybird and Warne. She is also the author of How to Write for Children and Get Published (Piatkus) and currently writes the children’s writing pages for Writers’ Forum.
Cherith Baldry
Handles submissions of longer fiction for older children. She is also an editor on the Mentoring Scheme.
Cherith is a bestselling author of more than fifty children’s books. Indeed the only books that sell better than hers in the States, are those of J.K. Rowling!
As science fiction is Cherith’s main interest (along with fantasy) she seemed the perfect choice when Puffin came to the Centre looking for authors for their, then, new Surfers series. Her subsequent book Mutiny in Space was snapped up by them and published in 1997. More books followed including titles for the highly successful Puppy Patrol series.
However, Cherith’s greatest success has come with the creation of Warriors – now in its fifth series and selling second only to Harry Potter in the States. The Warriors books are written under the name of Erin Hunter but, in reality, Erin doesn’t exist and is, in fact, a team of three writers – Victoria Holmes, Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry.
Read more about Cherith on our news page.
Martin Beardsley
Handles submissions of all types of fiction but is, in particular, our non-fiction expert.
Martin is an experienced author, particularly in children’s fiction and non-fiction. He is represented by Elizabeth Roy for his children’s writing.
His best known children’s work is the Sir Gadabout series of books from 1992 to the present – so far nine titles, published by Orion Children’s books, with co-editions in several countries worldwide. Sir Gadabout was adapted as an award winning CITV series and the audio version is read by Clive Andersen.
His other books for children include Five Naughty Kittens, and The Cat that Went Woof! – picture books (Franklin Watts); The Bell Tower and The Hangman (Ginn); Sir John Franklin – a junior biography for Short Books); The Last Duel and Smuggler! – non-fiction books for Barrington Stoke; The Lost Purse and The Great Fire of London (Ginn interactive CD ROMs).
Coral Rumble
Handles poetry submissions for children of all ages.
Coral Rumble has worked as a poet and performer for many years, and now specializes in writing and performing for children. She is featured in Favourite Poets (Hodder). Michael Rosen has commented, ‘Rumble has a dash and delight about her work.’
Coral has had three collections published – Creatures, Teachers and Family Features, Breaking the Rules and My Teacher’s as Wild as a Bison. She has also contributed to over one hundred anthologies for children.
In addition Coral delivers INSET training ‘poetryclass’ on behalf of the Poetry Society and DFES, and has worked with children in hundreds of schools all over the country. She also works regularly on the ‘Poet in the City’ scheme and Creative Partners projects. In recent years she has worked as a writer and poetry consultant for the BBC.
Lynn Curtis
Handles copy editing and proofreading
Lynn Curtis began her publishing career working on the children’s list of Victor Gollancz. She subsequently worked as a copy editor for William Collins, and a commissioning editor for Simon & Schuster, as well as for a variety of women’s magazines, including Woman’s Own where she was fiction editor for several years.
She is currently a freelance editor specialising in structural editing and ghost writing as well as copy editing. She works for individual writers, literary agents and publishers, including Hodder and Stoughton, Headline, Heinemannn, Orion, Bantam, Piatkus – and The Writers’ Advice Centre.
Please note that copies of Advice Centre Editors’ books are available from our Shop