It’s hard to find a business model as truly collaborative as that of Usborne Publishing. Since it was launched by Peter Usborne in 1973, the children’s publisher has been creating exceptional, learning-based, engaging books for young readers–with all the titles written, edited, and designed in-house by a robust creative team. This means that all of the editors play an integral role in conceiving and crafting each title.
PW spoke to editors and authors Katie Daynes, Alex Frith, Sam Taplin, and Fiona Watt about the process of bringing each new Usborne children’s book into the world, what makes the books unique, and the inherent joys of the work they do.
One look at the Usborne catalog and it’s easy to be blown away by the sheer variety of books. From your perspectives, what are some commonalities that carry through each title, regardless of genre, format, or topic?
Daynes: All our books make learning fun—or rather they make sitting with a book such an appealing, engaging prospect that you don’t realize you’re learning along the way. Peter Usborne famously called this “learning by stealth.” Another commonality is the quality of our books, which has secured our excellent reputation over the years. When I mention I work for Usborne, I invariably get the answer that “you can always trust an Usborne book.”
Frith: Well we hope they are all equally high quality! But beyond that, we try very hard to make sure that all of our books have a mixture of fun, clarity, and accessibility to the readers. So we hope no reader ever feels we’re talking down to them; we want them to feel as excited and curious about each topic as we do when we’re making them.
Taplin: If you pick up a book in a store and it has the Usborne balloon on it, you know immediately that you can take one thing for granted—a great deal of thought and care and passion have gone into that book. Whether it’s a novelty book for preschool children like Don’t Tickle the Shark or a big, complex project like Understanding Politics, everything on our list is crafted by a team of people who care deeply about creating the best books we possibly can. Over the years our customers have learned to trust us and have become fond of us, and we’re determined to keep it that way by making every single Usborne book something that reflects the values Peter Usborne embodied—do it better, never forget your audience (children!), and never stop wanting to help young people learn and inspire them about the world.
Watt: Eye-catching illustrations, entertaining and fun, editorial quality, well-researched information, and excellent production qualities.
Is it ever difficult to transition between your roles as both authors and editors at Usborne?
Daynes: When I’m editing, I’m sometimes too quick to suggest an alternative sentence rather than let my colleague find the solution for themselves—but since all our books are a collaboration, my input is mostly appreciated! The roles are less strictly demarcated than in other publishing companies where the authors are mostly freelance, and I think this helps us to continually improve our content. Writing the books makes us better editors and editing each other’s books makes us better writers.
Frith: Not really. For my tastes, editing can feel like an easier job, as you don’t have to face blank pages that need filling up. But after that hurdle, everything we do is collaborative. So when I’m an editor talking to an author, or when I’m the author talking to an editor, it always feels like a conversation where we both want to make the book "work," and I don’t feel I’m putting different hats on or anything like that.
Taplin: This variety in what we do is actually one of the things I love most about working here. For example, here’s what I did this morning: I wrote the story for the next title in our new series of “magic wand” novelty books, I had a long conversation with our audio producer to make the final tweaks to the sounds for Don’t Tickle the Ghost, and I finished editing the latest in our series of Adventure Gamebooks for older children. I also had chats with a couple of designers to catch up on where we are with our “soft flaps” novelty series and the latest pop-up book. The fact that I get to work on so many different things all at once is something I find stimulating and fun—there’s creativity in all of it, of one kind or another, whether you’re making your own books or helping other writers with theirs.
Watt: The roles are so integrated that I find it difficult to separate them. As a writer, you get used to self-editing your text as you work.
I’d love to know more about your creative processes. Do you often collaborate on projects, or do you work more independently?
Daynes: Our projects begin independently, with the author, a blank page, lots of reading and research, and pen-end chewing. Soon after that they become an important collaboration between the author and designer. In fact, I’d say that Usborne designers are the unsung heroes in our creative process. I love handing over my draft text to the designer, then seeing my notes for potential visuals magicked into life with their brilliant sketches.
Frith: As an author, the early stages of a new book are often pretty independent—we go off and read as much as we can (and as time will allow!) about a topic, and start filling up pages of ideas and potential book plans and even some draft text. But pretty quickly after that, it becomes hyper-collaborative. There’s typically a core team of an author, a designer, an editor, and a design manager. As a foursome (sometimes more people if it’s a bigger book), we’ll meet pretty often to show work, discuss it, talk about how we see the book, throw around bold ideas, and so on. Once we’ve prepared a number of pages we’re all pleased with, we need to get approvals, and it’s at this point we get in an illustrator, adding another collaborator to the core team. It’s rare to spend much time on your own with a book.
Taplin: Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do at Usborne. A lot of my job consists of creating new novelty series for young children, and each one of those relies on incredibly talented colleagues to make it happen. I work very closely with lots of different designers who interpret my ideas and throw in plenty of inspired ones of their own, and when we’re making sound books we work with an expert audio producer who crafts every single sound with huge precision according to the brief that I provide. Those relationships with other members of the team are really satisfying and fun, and I think the fact that each of our books has a gang of different creative people behind it is one of the secrets of our success.
Watt: Most of the titles I work on begin with researching, then brainstorming ideas and looking for picture references. It’s the same process for each title, whether it’s a touchy-feely book or a fairy sticker book! I then write a plan for the book, but will then work very closely with my designer and discuss ideas before starting the book. Working mainly on baby and novelty books, I don’t tend to collaborate with other editors, but I may discuss my thoughts and ideas with Jenny Tyler, our publishing director.
What can you share about the research that goes into books that are more focused on science or history?
Daynes: It’s so interesting! I bore my children every evening with the things I’ve learned. And I genuinely don’t know anyone else (outside of Usborne) whose job enables them to learn fascinating new facts every day. I particularly enjoy forming strong working relationships with experts in the field, who can share their enthusiasm for the subject and help me bring scientific rigor to my kid-friendly facts.
Frith: Deliberately, we authors and editors are not experts in the topics we write about—to better approach them with the same curious mind as a reader. It’s a bit of a stretch to claim we achieve this, but in our research, we’re looking at material and aspiring to get our knowledge roughly on a level with university undergrads. This is partly to help us understand certain topics—for example, quantum mechanics—with some kind of solid foundation, but mostly it’s because that’s where the interesting facts about topics start off! It depends on the nature of a book, but generally our aim is to inspire readers to fall in love with whatever the book is about. And my feeling is that the best way to do that is not explain the basic stuff, but give the reader enough basic knowledge so we can talk about the non-basic stuff—the theories and investigations professional scientists or historians are working on, and don’t know the answers to. Alongside all this, we find actual experts in the field to help us with each book. This ranges from working scientists to academics, teachers, museum curators—all sorts, really! Sometimes we’re able to get them to explain complex ideas to us, so we can in turn explain them to our readers. More often, they will look over our work, tell us where we’re going wrong, share picture references to make sure we’re getting small details right, that sort of thing. Best of all, experts are often able to give us material to look at that isn’t easy to find, things beyond libraries and Google searches. Some of the most invaluable help from experts is when they make quick sketches of things, especially dinosaur limbs and feathers.
Taplin: When I first started writing for Usborne in the late '90s I was working on history books, and I was taken aback by how meticulous the process was. Every sentence was seen by an expert consultant to make sure it was accurate, and a great deal of research went into every single page. In those days, that research happened mainly in a library whereas nowadays some of it’s done online. But one thing hasn’t changed—a nonfiction Usborne book will be seen and checked by an expert. It’s their job to make sure that what we’re saying is correct, while our job of course is to make sure that it’s presented in a way that’s as entertaining and inspiring as possible.
Watt: Even though the books I work on are baby books or sticker books, I still strive to make all the information as accurate as possible. I use the internet to check information, going to reputable sites, such as major museums, up-to-date magazines, or educational websites such as BBC Bitesize (a learning and revision resource). When working on That’s Not My T. Rex, I did my research to make sure we had the correct number of fingers and toes!
Across the Usborne library, the illustrations pop off the pages. There are also so many different art styles! What can you share about working with your illustrators?
Daynes: Illustrators become the third corner of our creative triangle: author/editor—designer—illustrator. They take the designer’s rough sketches and make them their own, evoking the scenes with their unique styles. We love working with a wide range of illustrators because different styles suit different topics, formats, and age groups. Finding the right illustrator can be surprisingly difficult, but it’s wonderful when you get the right spec back and everything falls into place. We work with illustrators from all over the world, so we don’t always get to meet them in person, but I’ve developed some strong, lasting friendships over the years.
Frith: Well, we don’t make it easy for them! There’s typically a selection process to find a new artist for a new book. I don’t actually know if some artists realize the competition can be rather fierce. One of the challenges of making our books is that the words and pictures are very tightly integrated, especially on our flap books. So we need to send quite detailed designs to illustrators, which some of them are not used to. But the best illustrators always find ways to bring their own ideas to the page. And as you say, our books just wouldn’t be as exciting without them!
Taplin: This is one of the great pleasures of what we do. Choosing the right illustrator for each project is vital, and it’s very satisfying to see our ideas being brought to life by so many talented and varied artists. A lot of work goes into an Usborne book before it goes to the illustrator—it will be written and designed in-house first. So it’s always exciting when we see the finished illustrations and the book that was just an idea in our heads is suddenly real. Although we’re very meticulous and thorough in our briefs to illustrators, it’s always lovely when they bring their own ideas too and add little unexpected touches and details of their own.
Watt: Our illustrators are normally freelancers who we commission title by title, but unusually, two of my designers are also illustrating the books. The advantage of this is that I see the artwork as each double-page spread is completed and can make comments at an early stage.
For each of you, what would you say is your favorite aspect of being an Usborne editor and creator?
Daynes: Never feeling the Sunday evening blues. I love what I do, and (nearly) always enjoy starting work on a Monday morning!
Frith: It’s a combination of learning new things all the time, with each new book, and the challenge of finding ways to explain the most difficult (usually the most interesting!) ideas to readers of any age. It’s not so far away from trying to solve the puzzles from the Usborne Young Puzzle Adventures I grew up reading myself.
Taplin: Before I answer this, it’s worth taking a moment to consider just how long most people stay at Usborne! I joined straight after university 25 years ago and I’m probably not even in the top 10 longest-serving members of staff. In a way, I think that statistic says it all, and I imagine each of us would have a slightly different answer as to what it is that makes us love working here. The thing I love most is that I get to invent books that become part of thousands of little children’s lives, books that might make them laugh or dance or discover the world in a new way. The quiet moments that parents share with their small children are incredibly precious times in family life, and when I go to work every day I’m creating things that will help those moments to happen in houses all over the world. It’s hard to imagine a better job than that.
Watt: No two days are ever the same. I never know what might be on my desk or in my inbox when I start work in the morning. There may be a new title to brainstorm, touchy-feely textures to choose, a set of proofs from the repro house to check or a copy, or a new title from the printer to approve. I still love working at Usborne as much as did when I started 34 years ago!
