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As the 40th Children's Book Fair opened in Bologna yesterday,
Frances Lincoln could claim to have one of the hottest books
of the event - an anti-war anthology, 'Lines in the Sand:
New Writing about War and Peace'. Mary Hoffman and daughter
Rhiannon Lassiter, both authors, came up with the idea the
week before Bologna and by 31 March had a deal in place
with Frances Lincoln and a publishing date of 12 June.
To get things moving they asked fellow author Michael Rosen
if they could piggyback off the address list he'd collated
in putting together a letter from children's authors to
the Guardian. "Of course he said yes," says Hoffman,
"and within an hour of the first e-mails going out
I had the first reply from Ben Hodson, a Canadian artist,
and since then the floodgates have opened."
Hoffman had mentioned the project to Janetta Otter-Barry,
Frances Lincoln's Children's Editorial Director, very much
in passing as she says she didn't associate the publisher
with 'instant' books. "Janetta called me back to say
that MD John Nichols wanted the book and could do it in
six weeks, at £4.99 and with a 10% royalty going to
UNICEF," Hoffman says. "John has since said he's
also donating Frances Lincoln's profits as well, and all
the artists are giving their illustrations for auction.
We're going to have to work night and day to meet the deadline,
but I'm sure we will as there's so much passion, commitment
and anger."
Lines In The Sand: An Anti-War Anthology will be published
by Frances Lincoln on 12th June 2003.
Article Source: Publishing News
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