Publishing Deal - Phil Earle

From today's Bookseller:

Puffin has acquired a début young adult (YA) title by Simon & Schuster children's sales director Phil Earle.

Puffin will publish Earle's YA title, Being Billy, in early 2011 under Fiction Puffin Loves, an initiative that focuses on strong new talent.

Earle said he was inspired to try his hand at writing after reading books such as Skellig (David Almond), Holes (Louis Sachar) and You Don't Know Me (David Klass) while working as a bookseller for Ottakar's. "I was never into reading as a child but when I started reading these YA titles as a bookseller, they really fired my imagination," he said.

Being Billy, about a 14-year-old boy who has been in care since he was six, draws on Earle's experiences as a care worker in a local authority home, his first job after leaving university. He said: "I became very interested in how children in difficult situations confront the challenges and manage to overcome them."

Earle is writing a sequel to Being Billy and plans to write for children of other ages.