@thesweetbookclub_: Throwback Thursday! Published in 2008, Street Boys tells the story of a notorious South London street gang showing their lives as children growing up on the Angell Town estate in Brixton. I lived in the area for a period and found their stories moving and disturbing in equal measure. Sell in (the process of collecting orders from bookshops for a title in advance of publication - usually 6 months) was challenging – actually it was bloody difficult. Confusion over where to place the story was the main take away - the story centred Black kids but they were in a gang, as young as 8. I felt the story needed to be published and I was able to get it through acquisitions (the new business meeting where editors pitch books and the publishing team agree on what they want to offer which the editor is then tasked with negotiating). I’m glad we pushed it through, it was a story that needed to be read then and still I think today. It’s about these stories! #lovereading #lovebooks #bookschangeeverything #it’saboutthesestories #socialchange #storytelling #writingtok #bookclub #writingcommunity #BookTok #throwbackthursday @harpercollinsuk
