Berbay launches junior fiction series

Berbay Publishing will release its first junior fiction series, ‘Norton’, in 2018, by Melbourne writer and illustrator John Dickson.

The series focuses on seven-year-old Norton, who is ‘finding his way in the world through a series of mishaps, mistakes and misunderstandings’, with the help of his caring family (and a slightly tricky older sister).

Dickson has previously collaborated with Berbay on the picture books Have You Met Scribble? and the alphabet book M is for Mutiny! (illus by Bern Emmerichs), publishing in November.

Berbay managing director Alexandra Yatomi-Clarke said she decided to expand into junior fiction due to the publisher’s success with its picture book list, and ‘a real gap in the market for well written junior fiction’. ‘In the last few years sales growth has increased significantly, allowing Berbay to grow its list,’ said Yatomi-Clarke. ‘Berbay has established a reputation in the market for producing high quality, original and enriching children’s picture books and we are now extending this to junior fiction and YA … [This] seems a natural extension of what we already do quite well. ‘

Yatomi-Clarke said she is also ‘very excited about extending our publishing program to include YA’ as well, with the YA list in its ‘planning stage’.

The first two ‘Norton’ books will launch in early 2018, with plans for a further eight books in the series.

Category: Junior Local news Rights and acquisitions