Daniel Pilkington: #Robinpedia

Black and white photo of Daniel Pilkington. He has stubble and short but floppy hairy. His shirt is fine checks. Quote: In publishing we all want each other to do well because we’re all passionate about the industry. Photo was originally in colour without text and on the NSW Writers Centre’s website.

Daniel Pilkington is the Head of Sales for Hachette Australia, but before we get to his career journey let’s cut straight to the important bit, judging him based on his appearance. Because if Hollywood profiles of the likes of Liane Moriarty and J. K. Rowling have taught me anything, it’s that judging books based on their cover is imperative. Daniel’s Twitter profile states that he would be considered good-looking in the 1950s. He has periwinkle eyes and good hair, beautiful even. It’s got that floppy Hugh Grant quality but in a dusty blonde. But is it the best hair in publishing? Alas not quite. Alison Green still holds the title. Do better Hachette.

Born to teacher parents Daniel Pilkington decided to break with family tradition, leaving school at the age of 17 to work at Kmart. Daniel had big dreams and they didn’t involve sitting behind a university desk, no, they were of freedom and wind blowing through his magnificent hair. He yearned for the only thing that would make this happen, a Kombi.

Picture of the character Fillmore from the movie Cars. Green Kombi van with sleepy face and the word PEACE and some flowers spray painted down his side.

A Kombi was to be Daniel’s ticket to traveling Australia and so he procured a job at Katoomba Kmart in order to earn some of that sweet Kombi cash. He was initially placed on the door to greet and farewell customers but soon found that being at a constantly opening door in the Blue Mountains during winter is fecking cold and so eager for a warmer position Daniel buckled down and was soon promoted to manager.

Surely on a manager’s salary Daniel could now achieve his dreams of buying Kombi? But by that stage Daniel had discovered that he loved watering the plants at Kmart, unpacking the books and chatting to customers, so he stayed. He stayed and continued to be promoted until he was managing the great Kmart of Chatswood Chase and Warriewood. Under Daniel’s love and care Warriewood became the highest selling Kmart for books. Publishers liked this very much. In 2007 he was declared Young Retailer of the Year. Surely now he could get his Kombie?

Long story short, he didn’t. Or maybe he did but he didn’t ride off into the sunset in it flipping off everyone as he went. No, he stayed. He stayed until one fateful evening Hachette invited him to an author talk and dinner. The dinner was free, young Daniel eagerly licked his lips and leapt the chance. At that dinner Daniel impressed the then Head of Sales at Hachette so much with his passion for selling books that he slipped him his card and told him that should his Kombi van not be rockin he could come knockin for a job. Six months later Daniel came knocking and was offered a staggering pay cut. He accepted.

Daniel initially became a Sydney Account Manager, then worked his way up to National Account Manager, Head of National Accounts and eventually Head of Sales. He loves this because he gets to see all of the books. Fictional, non-fiction, children’s, all of them. This also means print books, ebooks and audiobooks. It might seem like an unconventional route, but aren’t all the best journeys a little bit winding and different?

Daniel has run the whole gamut from Kmart greeter to Head of Sales at Hachette but did he ever buy that Kombi? I don’t know but I’d really like to find out. Let me know about his Kombi in the comments section below. Also add any other tidbits that you think would help flesh out this entry. 😚

Characters from the movie Tangled saying ‘Go, live your dream.’ Rapunzel on the left wearing purple dress, big guy in the middle meant to look criminal, Flynn Rider on the right has brown hair and is meant to look handsome.

Find Daniel Pilkington being 1950s handsome on Twitter here.

Hot new tip off: Daniel Pilkington loves the Foo Fighters.

You forgot to mention your abiding love for the Foo Fighters @djpapilko https://t.co/bqZMGBQnal

— Justin Ractliffe (@justinractliffe) March 2, 2018

No word on where things stand regarding the Kombi but I’m uncovering new leads.

Submit to Hachette here.

Browse Hachette’s titles here.

If you enjoyed this entry I just know you’ll love my Robinpedia profiles on:

Natasha Lester

Sarah Schmidt

Allison Tait

L.A. Larkin (I love her and occassionally have cocktails with her so you better love her too!!!)

Learn more about Robinpedia here.

Learn more about me here.

Read about my views on being a dyslexic writer here.

Read about my thoughts on author branding here.

Natasha Lester: #Robinpedia

 

Natasha Lester is an Australian writer with a Masters in Creative Writing and a PhD in being farken fabulous. When she isn’t writing she enjoys yoga, sorting through her extensive lipstick collection, buying shoes, and drinking gin. I believe her gin cupboard looks something like this. 

Prior to entering the Australian authorial world Natasha Lester worked in public relations and marketing. She has worked for heavyweights such as L’Oréal, Maybelline and Harlequin. Thankfully she abandoned the glamorous life of PR and became a povo writer instead. It involves just as much drinking of gin but far less money.

 

Lester’s first book, What is Left Over, After was published by Freemantle Press in 2010.She did what any first time author would do and took a bunch of shelfies. Don’t pretend that we don’t all do it. This was followed up in 2012 with If I should Lose You. For her third book, Lester switched to writing historical romance. She released A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald in 2016 through Hachette, this was quickly followed up by Her Mother’s Secret in 2017.

 

When Natasha Lester isn’t doing yoga whilst writing and applying lipstick she teaches writing. Frequently through The Australian Writers’ Centre.

 

Find Natasha Lester’s website here. 

 

Chat to Natasha Lester on Twitter here. 

 

Drop Natasha Lester a line on Facebook here. 

 

Grab her books here. 

 

Check out my review of A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald for Newtown Review of Books here. 

 

Read more about Robinpedia here. 

 

Buy my shit here. 

Sarah Schmidt: #Robinpedia

Who is Sarah Schmidt? She is an Australian writer, festival co-ordinator, fancy librarian, and killer of novels. In her spare time she enjoys long walks and researching alleged murderers.

Currently Sarah is most famous for pulling a Hannah Kent. What’s pulling a Hannah Kent? Having publishers worldwide go completely ape-shit clamouring for your first novel. This is the stuff novelists dream of, and not just for their first novel, any novel. We all desperately want our novels to have that “ape-shit factor.” Sarah’s debut, See What I Have Done, has “the ape-shit factor” in spades. The lucky Australian publisher to secure it? Hachette. Release? March 28th 2017. It already has so much buzz about it that I just saw a hoard of bees fly past with a copy declaring it their new queen. I threw a copy of my book at them, they tried to sting me.

See What I Have Done is a historical thriller about Lizzie Borden who was trialled and acquitted for the murder of her father and stepmother in 1892. Lizzie Borden has long fascinated the general public, even making it into an episode of The Simpsons. Despite her acquittal, Lizzie is still thought of as the prime suspect for the murders. With theories ranging from hiding her own sexuality to revenge for child abuse. Other suspects include the family maid, Bridget Sullivan, who is said to have made a death bed confession that she had lied in her testimony. William Borden, Lizzie’s illegitimate brother, and John Morse, Lizzie’s maternal uncle, are also suspects. Sarah Schmidt of course has her own fresh take on this in See What I Have Done. 

To add to the Lizzie Borden fever, the movie Lizzie starring Chloe Sevigny as Lizzie Borden and Kirsten Stewart as Bridget Sullivan is also being released in 2017. The timing of this has helped increase interest around Sarah Schmidt’s work. So make sure you get in on this hot new trend by reading Sarah’s historical fiction See What I Have Done before the whole world explodes with Lizzie fever.

I have unofficially appointed myself as the counter downerer for the release of See What I Have Done, so visit me on twitter to find out how many day you have to go. It’ll be pinned to my profile until it is finally released.

Find Sarah Schmidt’s website here.

Find Sarah Schmidt on Twitter here.

Find Sarah Schmidt on Instagram here.

Find the article I memmed the quotes from here.

If there is any information that you’d like added to this entry please leave it in the comment section.

If you’d like to learn more about Robinpedia go here. 

I’ll leave you with one of Sarah’s favourite songs to listen to after a hard day writing. 

https://youtu.be/uco-2V4ytYQ

Writer/ Publisher Interviews: or Literary Speed Dating as the cool kids call it

As a high school English teacher I’m familiar with Parent/Teacher Interviews. I get to see the parents of the children I teach and find out why they’re so hilarious or why they’re so not hilarious. Often they’ll have the nervous teenager in tow giving you that look like, “Please don’t tell them I said my parents don’t care if I don’t do my homework because they do and they will kill me,” so I obligingly start with homework. It’s generally all very civilised and we have a few laughs and agree that their child is special and what we can do as a team to maximise their potential, ie homework. Well except for that time when the parent turned up drunk and fell off their chair and kept forgetting why they were there and persisted on asking me about their nephew who I didn’t teach instead of their son who I very much taught,  that was slightly less civilised and laughy. Although now years and schools later I am seeing the laughingness of the whole thing. However, this only prepared me in part for the Literary Speed Dating event hosted by the Australian Society of Authors and the New South Wales Writers’ Centre.  Mostly because the publishers were the teacher, I was the parent and my manuscript was the kid… and I was utterly petrified that I was going to hear that he hadn’t done his homework.

Fortunately, as I am the queen of catstrophising, things did not go as badly as I’d imagined.* Now I was a little delirious from lack of sleep,**  so my word can’t be taken as gospel,*** but it all seemed really good to me. The organisation was excellent. I know from Parent/Teacher Interviews that things can quickly devolve into a chaotic quagmire with nobody hearing bells or moving on but with the very loud air horn going off every three minutes that just wasn’t an issue. Light bladder leakage may have been an issue as some of us never quite got used to the volume, but it certainly made things run smoothly. I salute you air horn. Lining up was a great chance to catch up with old friends from writing courses like Lisa and Helen who I met through Kate Forsyth courses, and new friends I’d met through twitter such as Meyrnah. And I cannot forget my fellow acolyte of Walter Mason,   Ms Ashley. Thanks to Ashley I am now obsessed with Armenia. My husband is very pleased because he loves discussing history and politics. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. Being around so many dedicated writers was really inspiring. Most people were happy to discuss their manuscripts and I can honestly say that there are a lot of very interesting concepts out there waiting to be published. And to top it all off the Publishing reps asked for my manuscripts so that was brilliant. I shall now have an accelerated heart rate for the next three months whilst I wait to hear back about my memoir, or my children’s novel. Worth it!

If you have a completed manuscript that you feel is ready for a professional eye I strongly recommend you book in early for next year. It sells out around 6 months in advance so make sure that you’re organised.

For great tips on how to handle the event read here:
http://illuminationsbylisafleetwood.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/literary-speed-dating/
https://highfantasyaddict.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/literary-speed-dating-sydney-nsw-writers-centre-2014-asa/ ****

The only thing I could possibly add is, don’t be afraid to discuss your manuscript with others. Discussing it will warm you up for pitching to the publishing representatives. Life is too short to be paranoid that everyone is going to steal your ideas. And heck, even if they are, back yourself, you’ve written it better and at the very least you’ve got a massive head start as yours is already finished. If someone is now out there madly attempting to write a memoir inspired by my time in a psychiatric hospital best of luck to them. Heck, if they want to write a tale of friendship for children, go ahead, there’s already plenty on the market and there will be plenty more because life is about relationships. Back yourself,  be confident, believe in yourself. If you can’t believe in your own writing how can you expect other people too? So book in early, be confident and pitch your heart out.

*I’d imagined being met with a long awkward pause followed by, “Don’t ever waste my time ever again.”

** Mummy still loves you, but kids… I’ve got an audio book narrated by Samuel L Jackson that you need to hear.

*** Or any biblical chapters for that matter.

**** Those entries managed to capture photos of a smoking hot red head… a red head… a bottle red head. It’s me ok!

Sydney Rudiarius Pitch Games: #ASA #NSWWC

Tomorrow marks the day of the Sydney Rudiarius  Pitch Games . Where 50 rogue authors swarm the New South Wales Writer’s Centre and set themselves upon 10 unsuspecting Publishers. It is a battle between upcoming talent to the very death… well… not death, it’s actually even more intense,  a battle to publication. Elbows fly, hair biting follows,  wrestling in pits of bulldog clips is a matter of course. In the end their can be only one, think Highlander,  or if you’re too young think Hunger Games. That one aspiring author will rise from the chaos of broken pens and dreams, the decapitated manuscripts of the fallen held aloft in warning, and approach the publishing industry representatives. These imperious creatures either raise their thumb for yes, we shall let your dreams live, or point their thumb down to say, your dreams too must die.

Some people will tell you a lot of nonsense how it’s actually quite civilised, that representatives are quite lovely, and you line up parent teacher interview style to have a chat. That you just need to be prepared,  enthusiastic and everything will be fine. Heck they’ll even try to say it is called Literary Speed Dating,  not Sydney Rudiarius  Pitch Games, but I think we all know what seems more likely.