A young person's guide to working in publishing with Gecko Press

Julia Marshall | Gecko Press CEO 

Gecko Press is an independent, international publisher of curiously good children’s books, based in Wellington, New Zealand. It hand-picks books by some of the best writers and illustrators in the world—books of good heart and strong character, excellent in story, illustration and design. Gecko Press prides itself on bringing the best books from around the world into English.

DISCOVER GECKO PRESS BOOKS

When I was seven, a teacher told me I could be a writer one day. As I grew up, I knew I wanted to work with words and pictures and stories, so I became a journalist. But I always wanted to work with children’s books – there was never any question for me about that, it just took me a long time to get there. I don’t want to be a writer any more, because I like helping books find readers and readers find books that might make a difference to them in some way, big or small.

There was no publishing course in New Zealand where I grew up, instead I worked in newspapers and magazines, first in New Zealand and later, in Sweden. I learned many things along the way that helped when I was later able to switch to publishing books. I started working as a trainee for a publisher of non-fiction for adults, when I was more than 40! I still wanted to work with children’s books, and my lucky break came when I met a man at the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair, who said he would answer all my questions “because someone did that for me 25 years ago”. He told me how you could buy rights to books from other countries, and so I set up Gecko Press – we now specialise in translations of children’s books from some of the best writers and illustrators in the world.

The best part for me is hearing when children love one of our books, as that means the book is alive and well and doing a good job.

Definitely! There are many qualities you can bring to publishing – among them a curious mind, a love of pictures, storytelling, ideas – or maybe you like numbers, or working with people. There are many ways you can enjoy working in publishing. Hundreds of people contribute to every book that finds its way to the hands of a reader – the author, illustrator, designer, editorial team, the sales and marketing people, the warehouse and distribution people, booksellers and librarians, the person who buys the book…

Publishing needs people with a whole range of skills and backgrounds, as that is how we make books that are true to what people want to read about. Being someone who understands what it is like to live with dyslexia for example, is a skill publishing needs.

I am very fond of Detective Gordon, who makes sure the forest where he lives is fair for all, with plenty of time for play and cake. I am also fond of Dani, in the My Happy Life series – we are right beside her as she navigates school and everything that happens to her along the way. I am very fond of the naughty characters also, such as Simon the rabbit who we first meet in Poo Bum – he knows how to push limits, but he can also behave well when he wants to – and Hattie, who tries hard at everything she does, sometimes with not good consequences. I like Liam, the quiet child in That’s Not a Hippopotamus, and Jonna, in The Ape Star, because she is so strong and funny, even though she is often lonely and afraid.

I never know what famous means, really. One of the lovely things about my job is meeting our Gecko Press authors and illustrators, who are famous to the people who read their books, like Ulf Stark and Ulf Nilsson and Wolf Erlbruch and Joy Cowley and Stephanie Blake and Eva Eriksson and Jörg Mϋhle. Some of our authors are not famous yet, but they will be! Often they are very wise, sometimes very shy. The author of one of our most-loved books, Who’s Hiding? lives so quietly that if we want to write to him in Japan, the letter has to be delivered by bicycle. I would love to meet him one day!

For me a good book is one that I want to read again and share with my friends. When I finish the book, I’ll probably keep thinking about it, maybe because it is puzzling or funny or just fun to read aloud, or a bit sad (but also a bit funny), or because I really like the characters or maybe the plot was so good it just kept me reading to the end; or I might want to keep looking at the pictures as part of the story. For me it probably has a beginning and a middle and an end. I might imagine what the characters would say and do if we were to have breakfast together, like my friends.