David Fickling Books to mark 10 years of independence with year-long campaign

David Fickling Books (DFB) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a year-long campaign acknowledging the people in the UK children’s book industry who have contributed to "the success of DFB". This will spotlight publishing professionals, booksellers, librarians, teachers and readers.

Next year marks 10 years since David Fickling made the leap to independent publisher, after being an imprint of Scholastic and then Random House. 

The year will begin with the January publication of Bunny vs Monkey: Bunny Bonanza! by Jamie Smart, and a nod to the original Bunny vs Monkey, the first book published by DFB. As part of the celebrations, DFB will host an industry showcase in spring and a summer party. Publisher David Fickling will appear at conferences and deliver keynote speeches, while DFB will launch partnerships to invest in "the next generation" of children’s writers and illustrators.

Fickling said: “For me, ‘10 years and still going strong’ is living the dream with the team (and the team includes everybody now and everybody then who has ever worked with us and of course includes all the amazing DFB authors and artists). I have to pinch myself. The dream was always big. We wanted to bring the very best stories to all children wherever they are in the world.

"Stories are what make us human – we all need them and we need them to be the best of the best and to represent all cultures. That’s DFB’s job!  The need for good stories has never been greater and the hunger never more demanding. My grin widens as I think of all the great stories still to be told, drawn, and written and fingers crossed many of them will be published under the DFB logo. How lucky am I to be part of this!"

Next year will bring new collaborations with the launch of Phoenix Rising, a partnership between DFB’s sister company The Phoenix comic and the social enterprise Creative Access, supported by DFB. The new initiative will aim to find the best new comic artists from underrepresented communities. 

January will also see the launch of a new partnership between the Arvon Foundation and DFB, to find the next undiscovered talent in writing for children. In line with DFB’s commitment to author development and support, the aim of the "Search for a Storyteller" initiative will focus on finding a previously unpublished writer to work with long-term over multiple projects, providing the successful candidate with Arvon creative writing support and a publishing contract with DFB.