K-Pop Witch Academy: an experiment in full-colour fiction and tight-knit teamwork!

Hello! I’m Fiona Scoble, editorial director at Do Re Mi. Usually my job puts me in the privileged position of helping another person tell their story, but in K-Pop Witch Academy: A Trainee’s Dream, for the first time in my career, I was in charge of ALL the words!

The K-Pop Witch Academy series follows talented eleven-year-olds Min, Soo and Ivy as they are invited to a mysterious K-pop academy on Ganghwa Island and discover that this school doesn’t just make idols, it makes magic too.

Aimed at readers aged seven plus, the book is filled with fantastic full-colour shōjo manga illustrations by Jenn Aguilera. Each of the 176 pages features either illustration or decoration. The timeline for the book, from first conversation to copies on the shelves, was eleven months, and those months were some of the most intense of my publishing career! The speed of the process and quality of the book were only achieved by what I think was some really remarkable creative teamwork at Do Re Mi, and I’m so proud of everyone that helped bring this book to life.

Words and pictures for everyone!

I’ve wanted to publish a full-colour fiction book for years. Although we’re used to full-colour picture books, and increasingly more colourful “early readers”, middle-grade readers don’t often get books with bright pictures. The UK market is getting better at providing graphic novels and black-and-white illustrated books, but I feel there’s an appetite for visually engaging longer stories that is yet to be sated.

Illustrations are delightful! Why should picture-led storytelling end when children are old enough to read for themselves? Growing up, I was an avid reader, but I would consistently return to my mum’s precious collection of highly illustrated books from the likes of Arthur Rackham and Brian Froud and my dad’s well-thumbed Asterix set, and when I think of middle-grade queen Jacqueline Wilson, it’s Nick Sharratt’s depictions of the characters that float into my mind.

Visual storytelling makes books more accessible and appealing. In the National Literacy Trust’s research into comics and graphic novels, children said that illustrations can help them to better understand and connect with the story and characters. The pictures allow readers to rest and absorb the emotions that the story conveys. As publishers, we’re competing for children’s attention against frenetically fast-paced images on a myriad of screens. Beautiful pages help to invite readers in.

Why don’t we publish more colourful middle grade?

Printing full-colour for older readers is a risk for publishers. It’s slower and more expensive in a market that tends to demand speed and lower prices. Many books for this age range are responding to trends and/or are series led, meaning you want to publish quickly and/or frequently. A lot of middle-grade books are printed in black-and-white in the UK for this reason.

For colour, publishers tend to either print in Asia or Europe. If you print in Asia, where it’s cheaper, you have to build in more time for shipping, and if you reduce your shipping time by printing in Europe, your cost jumps up. But you can’t raise your selling price without becoming too expensive compared to the other books for this age range (and becoming less affordable and accessible too).

Of course, you also have to build more time into your creative schedule and more money into your budget to allow for full-colour artwork on top of the writing. So there’s a lot to manage!

With both Jenn and I working as quickly as we could, we decided to print in Slovenia to keep our publishing as responsive to the K-pop trend as possible.

Thankfully, the bet that Do Re Mi made in publishing fast in full-colour paid off, because we received such fantastic international support, selling into over thirty territories. I’m sure a lot of this is because publishers were searching for their own K-pop inspired book after the huge success of the KPop Demon Hunters movie, but I think it’s also because there is a global demand for more accessible, visually led books for this age range.

K-Pop Witch Academy bridges the gap between graphic novels and a more traditional text-led reading experience. I wanted the book to feel fun and pacy in a slightly televisual way: the perfect comfort read. Whether it entertains a less confident or less habitual reader or just offers a different way of connecting with a story, I’m keen to create more books like this.

Switching my red pen for a black one

The idea for the book arrived over lunch with Do Re Mi co-founders Anna and Sam on my first day in the job. With the surge in interest in K-pop and Korean culture, I felt that Do Re Mi was the perfect publisher to create a K-pop inspired book that was visually led, playing into the high energy and striking visuals of K-pop music and magic. I’m delighted that we found star illustrator Jenn Aguilera to bring the books to life: her pretty shōjo manga style, filled with energy, personality and emotion, is perfect for the girls’ world.

I hadn’t intended to write the book myself. I started the project off in the way that I have done for others before, outlining the world and the characters before searching for an author that wanted to write the story. But when my usual plan began to fall through due to a lovely author friend having family commitments that made the tight deadlines unfairly stressful, I took on the project.

Writing this book wasn’t a sudden, whimsical decision. I’ve always written, but like so many people, I lacked the time/money/focus and the self-confidence to properly commit. Being faced with our very ambitious timeline, and supported by a brilliant team who told me to stop messing around and just do it, I got out of my own way and cracked on.

By the way, the author advice you hear about just putting your butt in a chair and writing is correct. My tip is to celebrate writing 1,000 awful words a day. After creating the outline, finishing the first draft is an effort of bloody willpower. On my writing days, I got friends, family and strangers to yell at me to go write 1,000 words. Sometimes it was easy and sometimes it was a slog, but if you don’t have stuff on the page, you can’t make it better. Once you’ve completed your shonky first draft, you can have a little rest then return with a fresh head to review what past-you got up to and make it better. Editing is SO much easier than writing!

I’ve always enjoyed creating books for this age range – the capacity for magic and adventure is boundless, and the intensity of first friendships is something that is remembered forever. I chose to tell the stories in close third person. The first book follows Min, the second, Soo, and the third, Ivy. I’ve loved writing about the girls’ distinct personalities and their blossoming friendship as they each discover their powers and learn the most important lesson – that when they trust each other and work together, their differences only make them stronger.

It’s also been such a joy to make a book about K-pop! Since our school days, my best friends and I have bonded over a shared love of pop music. I grew up dancing and singing along to Kylie, Beyoncé, and Britney, and honouring iconic divas like Madonna, Whitney Houston and Diana Ross. And K-pop is a cultural phenomenon that takes performance to another level! The spectacle, humour, drama and joy of pop is something to cherish and celebrate. Its ability to transport you and lift your mood can genuinely feel like magic.

“Teamwork makes the dream work”: If that cheesy quote’s good enough for BTS, it’s good enough for us.

Although it’s quite common in pre-school, picture and non-fiction books, it’s unusual for older fiction books to be written in-house. One good reason for this is that – as I suspected when I edited many wonderful fiction authors at Nosy Crow – writing them is a lot of work! But writing in-house allowed us to have such a brilliant creative dynamic with Jenn. I think it’s a shame that, when the book calls for it, the traditional publishing process keeps authors and illustrators distanced from each other. Being able to talk directly with Jenn about the scenes over email and video calls was so fun and, I think, has added humour, drama and energy to the story.

I’ve never made a book this way before: the creative process was closer to how I imagine TV writers’ rooms work. Everyone in the office brought something to the development of the project, which meant we could create and react quickly as the idea progressed.

A wonderful team helped the story and characters take shape. My conversations with cultural consultant Seong-Jae Kong allowed the girls’ adventures to weave around Korean culture, food and folklore and his advice has made the school as authentic as a witch academy can be. Our lovely intern Nanako Furuta introduced me to the world of K-pop merch. Freelance editor Rose Painter not only has a great eye for plot and character, but as a performer herself she understands elements of the girls’ experiences that I can only guess at. Huge thanks also to future star of stage and screen Jadé Ajibola for sensitivity reading Min’s character.

A lot of people who are cooler than me made this book look so good. Head of design Polya Plavinskaia is such a wonderful visual storyteller and she’s brought gorgeous images to every page. Alt-pop musician and visual artist Hannah Diamond created the logo. Do Re Mi co-founders Anna and Sam’s impeccable taste and sense of fun and editorial assistant Emilie Jung-Andersson’s knowledge of Korean culture and iconic fashion sense have all helped shape this story’s look.

There is always a team behind a book, and I feel particularly fortunate to be part of this one. I hope readers will enjoy losing themselves in Min, Soo and Ivy’s adventure as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it.