Children’s Books North co-founders, Tilda Johnson, Emma Layfield and Liz Scott are launching a Mentor Scheme for would-be publishing professionals living in the North of England and Scotland. The scheme will offer three places a year for mentees to work on a 1:1 basis with Tilda, Emma and Liz to demystify the industry and offer insights to anyone looking to begin a career in publishing.

Liz Scott says: ‘One of our core aims with Children’s Books North is to increase regional diversity in the children’s book industry. There is so much talent that we want to encourage, nurture and retain here, and we hope that the mentor scheme can help to achieve that.’

The mentorship scheme will involve an introductory 1-hour meeting online or in-person (when allowed). It will be followed by four 1-hour meetings focused on improving CV and social media profile, the importance of networking, interview and assistant role expectations, and the children’s book industry. In between these four meetings, there will be regular email interaction.

The scheme will last for four months each year and at the end of each scheme mentees will be put in touch with each other to form a support network going forward. Applications for the 2021 scheme are open now to anyone living in the North West, North East, Yorkshire or Scotland who is interested in beginning a career in publishing, with no previous experience required.