Meet 'The Late Crew'

and help us bring them back to bookshelves

I’m finally ready to reveal my first choice from last year’s 450 submissions – but, as with all good stories, there are a couple of twists…

Rab Ferguson’s The Late Crew is a novel for 8-12 year-olds, focused on a group of young carers who meet each other in detention, sent there as punishment for being late (despite having very good reasons). Before they can figure out their connection, however, an alien crash-lands into the school gym, and they soon have something else to care for – and a school to save.

This book is absolutely irresistible. The characters are brought to life with skill and sympathy, the prose is amongst the best I’ve ever seen for this age group, and the plot is perfectly paced and utterly gripping. It is both fun and funny, yet hugely educational – the introductions to concepts like chronic illness and autism are spot-on, striking the perfect tone, with a real deftness/lightness of touch. It also has, as you may have detected, that slight ache of injustice that is present in so much of the greatest children’s fiction.

So, a real contender amongst the submissions, right? Except the book I’ve just described wasn’t submitted; not originally, anyway. The Late Crew was published by Onwe Press, a fellow small publisher, in 2022, and had a great first twelve months, culminating with an award for Best Indie Young Reader 2023 at the Children’s Literature Festival. Unfortunately – like so many of our small press friends – Onwe had been forced to shut its doors just weeks prior to the award, leaving The Late Crew homeless by the time I opened my submissions window in September.

Rab’s initial enquiry to Valley Press was about a sequel, titled The Late Crew and the Copy Cat Creature, and he admitted: “I know you don’t currently publish children’s books, and the fact this is a sequel is a strange proposition…” I was delighted to discover that the second book (while still a work in progress) had all those qualities I mentioned above, and more. As a series, with further adventures to follow, the “Crew” seemed headed for blockbuster status. So I signed both books: this submissions winner has two volumes, one of which you might already have read. That’s the first twist!

The second twist is how I am approaching the publication of the two books. The children’s fiction industry is extremely competitive, and for The Late Crew to go head-to-head with the big players, in terms of the cover price and promotion, they need a head start. Therefore, today I am announcing a crowdfunding campaign to support the production of these amazing books. You can find out more by clicking this big obvious button:

I have set a target of £1,500, and to help us get there, I am inviting you to pre-order either the first, second, or both Late Crew books in paperback or hardback, with an option for a personalised signature by the author. If all goes to plan, your books will be delivered this summer, about a month before the official release.

If you have a young reader in your life, and are a big enough supporter of Valley Press to have read this far, please consider placing a pre-order: it will be an enormous help. If you’re not convinced yet, I’ve rustled up a thirty-second video trailer, featuring the voices of some young fans (and the author):

Hope that worked for you, it’s a bit of a new approach! I’ll be keeping you updated on the progress of the campaign over the next month, and probably sharing extracts and a few other goodies – so if you’re still not convinced, I fully expect to wear you down. (P.S. If you’d just like to chip in a few £ towards the cause, without receiving a book, there’s a separate button for that on the crowdfunding page.)

Oh, and if you’d like to read the full thought process (and some maths) behind the crowdfunding campaign, I went through it in my last Publisher’s Diary post, with more on that subject to follow soon. In the meantime, thank you for your attention, and please share the crowdfunding page on “the socials”, if you can – or as an alien might say: “Take me to your reader!”