Sometimes a Publisher will ask a Commissioning Editor for something specific for the list, meaning that we either look for it in submissions or develop an idea in-house that can be commissioned out to an author. In this case, I was asked for a lower middle grade animal series and I came up with Magic Animal Café, in which an old rotary phone gives two new friends the ability to talk to animals. In the same pitch meeting, however, I realised that Sales was also looking for something older and more adventure-based. Luckily, I was sitting on an upper middle grade idea called Blue’s Planet, about a girl who travels the world with her wildlife-documenting parents and uses her growing social media platform to inspire other young animal lovers to protect the environment.

Magic Animal Café, by the wonderful Stella Tarakson, has been out in the world since September 2021. Blue’s Planet has taken until now to find the perfect author, be developed, written and edited.

But it was definitely worth the wait!