Book talk

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My post on mentoring, on Writer Unboxed

Today, I have a post on mentoring, from both sides of the fence–the mentor and the mentoree–on Writer Unboxed.

Here’s a short extract:

Nobody writes in isolation. Writers experience mentoring in one way or the other at every stage in their careers. Early writing mentors are usually teachers, family and friends. Later, as we take our first steps towards trying to build a career as a writer, other, more professional mentors can improve our understanding of craft, as well as give us the confidence to take those first tentative steps.

You can read the whole thing here.

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Double Act 5: Kathy and Peter Creamer

pink dog Choc LogoA new interview in my Double Act series of interviews with author/publishers, this time with Kathy Creamer, who with her husband Peter has just launched into the creation of their second publishing house, but first in Australia, Little Pink Dog Books. Some years earlier, while living in Singapore, Kathy and Peter had started their first publishing house, Creative Characters Partnership, and continued with that later in the UK, before coming to Australia. It’s a fascinating story Kathy has to tell. Read on!

How did you get into publishing?

My first venture into publishing came about in 1998, when I was working as an illustrator and writer for Oxford University Press and Reed International in Singapore. At that time, I had become concerned about the massive fires in Indonesia, and the destruction of the rainforest to Ah Meng Launchmake way for palm oil crops. Together with Singapore Zoological Gardens and sponsorship from HSBC, I produced a picture book about orangutans and their diminishing habitat. It sold over thirty thousand copies and raised funds for orangutan Ah Mengconservation. Unfortunately,  the star of the book, the zoo’s much-loved Ah Meng, died a few years later at the grand old age of forty-eight. A good innings for an orangutan!

Shortly after the success of the book, My Cousin, Ah Meng, I set up Creative Characters Partnership with my husband, Peter. It began as a children’s book publishing business to help raise awareness, and funding for animal conservation projects. We enjoyed the whole end to end creative ahmengprocess and felt that it was something we could both work on as a team as follows:

*Peter: upfront Marketing, Research, Negotiation and contract management.

*Kathy: all the creative elements of concept, storyboards, layout, words and illustration.

*Peter: preparing all materials for production, sourcing and negotiating with printers, proofing copy with Kathy, taking delivery of stock, and final delivery of the stock to the client.

We published over twenty children’s picture book titles for zoos, nature reserves, country clubs and historic houses, to hopefully interest children in conservation, heritage and history.

Parrots, Pythons and Pots of Paint for Longleat House, was our first picture book in England, and meeting Lord Bath, who is such an interesting and charmingly eccentric character, was quite the highlight of this project.Lord Bath001

 Have your aims and strategies as a publisher changed from the beginning? How?

We have always concentrated on high quality, small to medium volume book production. As a two person business we feel that we need to bring more resources to help deliver the products, and with people who are comfortable working within the business model – as there are no royalties, just a flat fee payment for work done. With Little Pink Dog Books, however, we hope to eventually to be able to pay royalties some day.

Has working as a publisher impacted on your own career as an author and illustrator-whether that be positive or negative?

Working as a publisher did, unfortunately, have a negative impact on my career as a children’s illustrator and author, as running the end-to-end production process, with just two people, there wasn’t much time to be innovative, especially with the artwork. Once you have your working model it was too tempting to continue with the same, rather than experiment. My artwork and writing suffered, so we decided to close Creative Characters Partnership in order to refresh my work by studying for a Masters in children’s illustration, together with a BA degree, and some other courses in literature and creative writing at Dinosaur Discovery001university.

Little Pink Dog Books came into being when we moved to Armidale from Melbourne. We had been meaning to restart our children’s publishing business for some time, as we both enjoyed the challenge. It will be a different model than before, in that we are not looking to publish for clients or any organizations, but will be self funded. We also want to help new writers and illustrators to get their work published and will be actively looking for new picture book manuscripts and illustration.

We have three picture book titles on our list for 2016; a refresh of Mr Mr Ming001Ming and the Mooncake Dragon, one of my first ever picture books; a new fairy story, and a rather naughty rhyming tale from a very talented emerging writer.

The new website for Little Pink Dog Books (www.littlepinkdogbooks.com) will be up shortly.

How do you market your books-do you sell direct to booksellers and readers, or do you have a distributor?

The marketing component for Creative Characters Partnership was about finding someone or some organisation where our concept worked for the client and fulfilled their need.

This concept is based around niche market publication and holding zero stock i.e. the client commits to take all stock and pays in full upfront.

In addition small quantities were offered for sale either directly or through online companies such as Amazon etc.Rear End Papers v2

We may now change the model for Little Pink Dog Books, and go to direct marketing, but keeping full end-to-end production under our direct control.

What are the challenges and pleasures of small-press publishing, in your experience so far? Any memorable anecdotes?

The challenges have been mainly financial ones, in that the cost of colour printing and other production costs require careful management to ensure you end up with a surplus to re-invest in the business. In the Namecard Picturebeginning we learned the hard way, but soon made adjustments to our own pricing and then eventually we began to make a profit.

kathy creamer 2Managing a reasonable workload can also be challenging and very stressful.

Contracts for books did not come on a regular basis or cycle – the client wants the product when they want the product, and hence there can be very high workload pressure when multiple contracts arrive simultaneously, with only two people in the partnership.

 Any advice for aspiring author-publishers?

Start small; build a reputation for online delivery and a high quality product. Ensure all contracts are tight and don’t be afraid to resort to legal means to protect your work and enforce any contracts.

Make sure you have time to be creative.The Bad Tooth Fairy by Kathy Creamer

Recognize that there are many types of skills in the whole end-to-end book production process and an individual is unlikely to be good at all of them.

Some skills are creative, some technical, some legal, and always work with partners who look after their part of the workload and are committed to work to the deadlines required by the clients.

Ensure that it remains fun and enjoyable and does not become over burdening.

Be brave and just do it! Whether you choose to publish hard copy or ebook, it’s all about editing, attention to detail, an eye for design, clever marketing, working all hours, but having fun and enjoying what you do. Learn by your mistakes, but most of all, believe in yourself.

 

Kathy PhotoMore about Kathy

As a toddler, I first started drawing pictures as soon as I could hold a crayon, and I quickly learned that bedroom walls were much more fun to draw on than paper.

I’ve always been interested in conservation and decided that I would try writing and illustrating books for children about conservation issues related to animals and historical buildings.

My first four children’s books were published by Oxford University Press in Singapore, and I went on to illustrate over 70 books for OUP and a few written by Joy Cowley, for Reed International.

Since that time I have written and illustrated over 20 books for a variety of clients and have published these via our own company – Creative Characters Partnership, now known as Little Pink Dog Books.

I work mostly in watercolor, colour pencil and ink.

Website: http://kathycreamer.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathycreamerillustration/

Peter Creamer APU1More about Peter 

I was trained as a mechanical engineer in aerospace and admit that until I met Kathy I had never even thought about children’s books, let alone running a publishing business.

As Kathy began her work in Children’s book creation, I found that I had an interest in the production of creating a book from a process point of view.

I have always been interested in computers since my early days and enjoyed learning to use tools such as Pagemaker, Photoshop and InDesign, and I found it natural to help Kathy create books. We then naturally worked in our own areas as a team, and found it both enjoyable and rewarding, but also quite stressful in terms of meeting client demands and having the overall responsibility for the quality of the final product.

We now look forward to restarting the business as Little Pink Dog Books and to seeing the excitement such books bring to children who read them.kathy creamer 3

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Not Just a Piece of Cake: an interview with Hazel Edwards

hazel portraitHazel Edwards OAM is one of the most distinguished and popular authors of Australian children’s literature today, with a long and brilliant career spanning many decades–and many books! Today, I’m delighted to be featuring an interview I did with her to mark the release of her long-awaited memoir, Not Just A Piece of Cake: Being An Author, which is published this week.  

First of all, Hazel, congratulations on the publication of Not Just a Piece of Cake! Can you tell readers how it came about? And what was it like, as a writing experience? Did you find it difficult to get your life down on paper?

In a memoir, it’s acceptable to write only a slice of life. And that slice also fits the cake imagery. I’ve always preferred short, multi-layered pieces, with sub-text . ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake’ is 404 words and one less when ‘smack’ was censored out a few years ago.

But I prefer the term Questory (Quest + Story) rather than the more old –fashioned ‘memoir’. However, memoir is the genre convention for booksellers and makes the book easier for readers to find.

hazel in antarctica

Hazel in Antarctica

Health issues meant I couldn’t fly for a year, so I decided to ‘de-clutter’ stuff from my literary life. My other aim was to capture book-ish memories before they vanished from my hippocampus , the part of our brain where we store experiences. The recent dementia of some older writers worried me. And I’d been at funerals recently where some eulogies were works of fiction. I wanted a ‘real’ record with the flaws, doubts and candid dilemmas.

Originally I wasn’t sure whether I’d offer it for publication. It’s not a family history although it contains some of mine. It isn’t a how- to- write. It’s really a serendipitous map of the lifestyle process of writing longterm when you also have a family. Plus some ironic humour.

Until now I’ve avoided autobiography except when I was beset in the Antarctic polar ice  with 38 expeditioners (34  blokes and 4 other women )and it looked like we’d be there all year. ‘Antarctic Writer on Ice’ was the serendipitous result, based on e-mails sent under extreme expedition conditions. So the Map of Serendipity was a concept which appealed.

In ‘Not Just a Piece of Cake’  I’ve experimented in styling via anecdultery rather than chronological boredom. Anecdultery is my term of choice:crafted storytelling based on quirky incidents and characters. The extra-ordinary behind the ordinary. But not linear.

Having run workshops on ‘Writing a Non Boring Family History’ for decades, I’m wary of listing only significant birth and death dates which have readers yawning and shelving my book, forever.

I took on a different kind of intellectual challenge by experimenting with the structure of ideas. I’ve always dreamed in fractals. I wanted to explore the process of the process of longterm creativity. Honestly. Plus the specific creative time challenges when you also have a family. And to explore what sustains a writer. Issues like mentoring and being mentored. Fan mail.The thrill of creating a story which wasn’t there before.

I wanted to evaluate…what had been the most inspirational experiences…and which books & stories  had been personally most worth writing, instead of racing on with the next project as I generally do. Filing is not my strong point.  Neither is formatting.So this memoir was a change of pace and of style but also meant re-visiting articles as often I had written about experiences soon after, and these had an immediacy and details I had forgotten.

Thumb Cover Not Just a Piece of Cake jpgThis memoir is probably more candid than my earlier writing. Usually I write for a specific audience. This time I wrote for myself and in the beginning I was unsure whether anyone else would read it.

As a long term author, there’s a danger of answering in the same way to predictable questions–and by the way, Sophie, yours are NOT predictable :-). But after a few embellishments, the writer forgets what was true and what was value- added dramatised faction or even fiction.

So I decided to indirectly answer the most common queries about an author’s work style but also explore the diversity of experiences. Writers need to take risks, whether physically adventurous or intellectual risks. And often readers like to know ‘behind the book’.

In the original table of contents I had a conversational tone with sub-headings like  ( ‘Come and Meet My Camel’   ) and chose the chapter titles to indicate the diversity of an author work style.

The title is a playful reference both to the fact an author’s life is one of hard work as well as fun, and the title of your famous picture book, There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake. What’s it like, having written a book that has become such a popular classic?

Recently a Twitter fan complimented my ‘Not Just a Piece of Cake’ book cover, saying ‘The hippo was the elephant in the room’. That could be taken a couple of ways.

I believe a book belongs to the reader not the writer, so a ‘classic’ is owned by the audience. ‘Hippo’ has a life of its own, with fan mail too. Plus a film , Braille and Auslan versions and even a touring production.

But being known as the author of the Hippo series has enabled other projects.

hippoposterFirst published in my late twenties, I had a baby and a first book in the same year, so there were many memories across 200 books ( 194 are non-hippo-ist). I wanted to explore some non-hippo experiences too, like crime or mystery writing or even scripting. I don’t always sit at a computer and ask What if?’  Nor do I eat cake, well, just occasionally.

In the original table of contents I had a conversational tone with sub-headings like and chose the chapter titles to indicate the diversity of an author work style.hazel with kids hippo party

Children’s authors are often under-valued. I struggled with an earlier W.I.P. title; ‘Let Hippos Eat Cake; Being a Children’s Author or Not?  I wanted to convey the dilemma of always having to defend writing for children because others assume that audience is less important. It isn’t. And the skills required to retain reader interest are greater.  Often I stop myself from adding the disclaimer, I write non fiction and crime & mystery for adults too.

But there is joy in some of the answers included in the 100 Hippo History incidents and also in the Literary Speed Dating chapter where I interview my own character.

Authors can also have fun. And are permitted to be a little eccentric. It comes with the job.

You have maintained a long and distinguished writing career over several decades, with hundreds of titles published. How do you keep your writing fresh and relevant? And what strategies do you employ, career-wise, to stay on top of the many changes in the publishing industry?

Diverse interests. Deliberately learn new things so I can write freshly with the response of an amateur. Become the naïve participant. And interview intriguing personalities or workers with unusual occupations like wedding-dove releaser, forensic pathologist or Antarctic station leader.Participant-observation is an important part of remaining relevant and also an excuse for visiting places as diverse as a fireworks farm, wholesale flower market or the pokies when I was investigating addiction and discovered I was an ideas addict.

Each year I research a new area and also collaborate with an expert in a field which is new for me. ‘f2m;the boy within’ the YA novel about transitioning gender was co-written on Skype between NZ and Australia. So the method as well as the gender content was new. Ryan Kennedy , my co-author is a family friend and also an ftm ( female to male).f2m_cover_big

Now I describe myself as Authorpreneur on my business card. Great talking point. And I pay credit to my marketing manager daughter Kim for upskilling me into this digital century, especially via website, online bookstore and social media.  For a format challenged author who thinks in abstract not pictures, this has been BIG. (It’s her real day job elsewhere luckily) Recently I’ve become a speaker-author and intend writing fewer works, but sharing them more, in different formats.

You are not only a distinguished writer but also an inspirational teacher of writing. Can you tell us something about the courses and workshops you are involved in running?

These days I mentor more than teach.

Hazelnuts is the self-adopted name for those I’ve mentored and they continue to help each other via workshopping and launches for their finally published books.  I’m told that a cultured hazelnut is called a Philbert.  70% reach publication or performance.

HazelandThePhilberts

a light-hearted interpretation by Felicity Marshall

My workshops on ‘Writing a Non Boring Family History; and Authorpreneurship;The Business of Creativity’ are popular. I enjoy being a panelist at Literary festivals and occasionally give keynotes. Next year I’ll talk about my memoir and the techniques involved for ‘family history ‘genies’,  Year 11/12 students looking at careers and also small business groups as well as new writers.

You’ve been an early experimenter in such things as e-publishing and app creation. What is your view of the challenges and opportunities in those fields?

I have an e-book store of my established  fiction, script, literacy and adult titles on my website. But the most successful have been the adult non-fiction How To…’ titles.

E-books and the implications of digital changes have been the greatest learning curve. There are new opportunities for beginning creators  and for those with backlists, but the e-administrivia is time consuming and detracts from original work. I try to list things once and make my website the focus of my literary information with FAQs,  an archived newsletter and links to publishers, bios and events.

When I was first published in my late twenties with a traditional, mainstream publisher, they did the PR, the marketing , acted as ‘minder’ and expected to ‘nurse’  an author’s next book via editorial input. These days, authors do 90% of the marketing and being media-worthy with a web presence is vital.

Having a mixed portfolio of skills helps retain freshness. The versatility of writing for all ages and in different formats  as well as a teaching background helps. But there are still times when doubts occur. I talk about ‘The Plateau of Boredom’ in my memoir. And also about Story Stealing and who owns which idea.authorpreneurship_cover_front_low_res

You have been a great contributor over the years to author and children’s literature organisations. How important do you think it is for authors to be involved in that kind of thing?

Vital. Give not just take. ‘Networking’ should be a mutual support.

How do you see the publishing industry, and specifically the children’s books world, today, as compared with what it was like when you started out as an author? And do you have any thoughts on what the future for the industry might look like?

Today, it’s  instantly possible to call yourself an author, but NOT easier to have long term quality work available to readers in multi-formats which return sufficient for the intellectual property which the artist has created.

Hazel’s fantastic website, where you can also order some of her books, is here.

Hazel’s Facebook page is here.

 

 

 

 

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Stories Inc: A new way with children’s fiction series

stories incRecently, well-known Australian children’s authors and publishers, Susannah McFarlane and Louise Park, announced the launch of Stories Inc., a unique new consultancy service for children’s book publishers, helping them to create new fiction series.  Intrigued by the concept, I got in touch with Susannah and Louise, and asked them a few questions.

First of all, Susannah and Louise, congratulations on the launch of Stories Inc – such a bold and innovative venture! Can you tell us about the concept, and how you came up with it?

Thank you! Stories Inc has been created to cater to what we see as an opportunity and a demand to work with publishers in a more flexible, creative way to produce great book series for kids developed especially to sit within the publisher’s list. Stories Inc isn’t PARKjust a packaging service that a publisher can buy into: we offer a strategic and creative partnership to publishers that allows them to leverage our quite different but complementary skills to make a series for them. Louise brings years of senior educational and editorial experience and Susannah the same in trade publishing and marketing. It means we can help them make books that kids can and want to read.

We each have our own companies, (Susannah, Lemonfizz Media and Louise, Paddlepop Press) and through these we have independently worked with most of Australia’s major publishers – and each other! Five years ago we formed Pop & Fizz to create the Boy vs Beast series with Scholastic, a series that has now sold nearly half a million copies. We developed the concept, co-wrote the series and worked with independent illustrators and designers to deliver print-ready files. Working closely with the wonderful team at Scholastic was critical: not just to leverage their own and considerable in-house expertise, but also to ensure the series SMCFworked for them and their list needs. It was a very successful and fun project – and now we want to do more like it!

What has it been like bringing Stories Inc from idea to reality? What were the challenges and discoveries?

Stories Inc is really a natural progression, a development of what we are already doing. It spins off the reputation and success of body of work that we each have generated over the combined 50 years of our industry experience and achievements. A lot of the hard structural work was done when we established Pop & Fizz and the decisions and business structure that we already have in place will continue for Stories Inc. While we will continue to work independently as well, it’s incredibly exciting to be developing a partnership that has been both fun and successful.

What do you offer publishers with Stories Inc?

We offer them a suite of services that they can choose from. They may just want an external audit of their list, pure consultancy with recommendations, or they may want us to then work with them to develop those recommendations. And with that, we can deliver anything from a fleshed-out concept that they then develop internally to  the print-ready files for a whole series with marketing plan. The collaboration can be as small or large as the publisher wants or the opportunity suggests.

What about authors? Will you be working with other authors, as creators of individual books in series? 

Yes, absolutely, and illustrators and designers. We are continuing to conceptualise series and package to print ready files but we now looking to commission authors to write within these concepts, rather than writing everything ourselves. This will allow us to offer a diversity of voice and meet the increasing demand. It’s probably worth pointing out however that we can’t accept unsolicited manuscripts: our model is not about trying to fit existing stories and concepts into lists but develop them specifically for those lists.

What kinds of series are you aiming to create? 

That will be driven by what our publishing partners need but our age range covers first chapter books through to young adult fiction

 You have both had very successful careers as authors of series. Can you tell us something about your backgrounds and how you came to be writing series yourselves? 

Louise:

In my last year at Scholastic Australia I was both Publisher and General Manager, heading up the Education division. At that time I had conceptualized, written and ghost written hundreds titles for extensive reading programs such as Reading Discovery, Reconciliation, Bookshelf and more, along with many Trade titles. But it was mostly my extensive work with reluctant readers and indigenous children that had sparked a long love affair with writing for this group as well as the general primary school-aged reader. So, when I left in 2005 I decided to start my own company offering conceptualizing, writing and packaging services that catered for the primary school child.

When Susannah and I joined forces in 2010, the working partnership added a new dimension to conceptualisng and packaging. The era of the truly hilarious 3-hour Skype planning and scoping meetings, and the wonderfully lengthy working lunches had begun. It was evident fairly early on that the way we worked together and what we produced was a successful recipe worth continuing. 10 years later, series created by me or co-created by Susannah and I include Zac Power Test Drives—a massively successful global-best-seller, Boy vs Beast— a series that sold over 250,000 titles in its first 6 months of selling in its home territory, Star Girl—a series currently being adapted for television, SmartyCat, Bella Dancerella and Harriet Clare.

Susannah: 

At Hardie Grant Egmont when I was conceiving the world of Zac Power, I realized how much fun it was on ‘the other side of the fence’. After I sold my share in the company, I had some time away from publishing. I started writing a story for my daughter, Emma, then 9. I wanted to write her a story that might show her that she, girls, could do anything they wanted so I hijacked the boy spy genre and created Emma Jacks, EJ12 Girl Hero and it kind of went on from there. I think being a publisher you are perhaps better able to trouble-shoot some of the issues in your own writing – but I would never fly solo without an independent editor! Equally as a writer yourself, I think it makes it easier to work with other writers: it’s not surprising that an increasing number of people are wearing two hats!

You have also worked as publishers, and in the educational sector. What insights do you think you bring from those experiences? And what’s your view of the children’s book publishing industry in Australia currently? 

Our partnership rests on a unique blend of Trade and Education publishing experience. This allows us to create high-end trade series’ that we know our target audience want to read and can  read. Our years of experience driving publishing lists also means we are old hands at reading the market, finding gaps and understanding what will fill those gaps. And it’s fun to work with different people – very hard to call it work really!

We think the Australian children’s book industry is very buoyant with lots of committed professionals all looking for new ways to bring great stories to kids. Yes, the printed word story –in all formats – has some intense competition from other entertainment options but we think we are meeting that challenge with real energy and innovation, just as we need to. Part of that is looking at different ways to work and harness the talents of people outside a company. Publishers have always been good at that with authors, illustrators and designers and Stories Inc now extends the resources they can draw on.

Storiesinc.org

Paddlepopress.com.au

Susannahmcfarlane.com

More about Susannah McFarlane:

Series conceived and published by Susannah McFarlane have now sold over 3 million copies in Australia alone. EJ12 Girl Hero, Go Girl!, Zac Power and Boy vs Beast have provided Australian kids with scores of books they love and their parents trust.

A leading figure in Australian children’s publishing, Susannah works on both sides of the publishing fence combining over twenty years of senior publishing experience in both Australia and the UK with her ‘other job’ as a bestselling author with combined sales in excess of half a million copies.

Susannah held a number of editorial and marketing positions before becoming the Marketing Director of Reed for Kids in Melbourne in 1994. She then moved to London in 1996 to become Licensing Director of Reed Children’s Books working and subsequently Publishing Director and then Managing Director of Egmont Books UK and vice-president of the Egmont Group.

Susannah returned home to Australia in 2002, when her children confused Hyde Park with nature, and co-founded Hardie Grant Egmont where was she was co‐owner, managing director and publisher until 2008.  In 2009 she founded Lemonfizz Media, a boutique children’s publisher that focuses on developing a small number of projects with major publishing and media partners.

She is the creator and writer of the awarding-winning EJ12 Girl Hero series which has now sold over half a million copies, the creator and co-author of the popular series for reluctant-reading boys, Boy vs Beast, and the author of the Little Mates series of alphabet books for under fives. EJ12 Girl Hero was shortlisted for the Australian Children’s Choice Awards in 2010 and 2011, with Book 4 Rocky Road being awarded a KOALA Award Honour Book in 2011

Susannah was also a member of the Children’s Publishing Committee of the Australian Publishers’ Association from 2005-2008 and Convenor of the CPC and Board Director of the Australian Publishers’ Association 2010-2012. A former contributor to the UK trade journal Publishing News, Susannah also talked annually on children’s publishing to the RMIT Editing and Publishing course in Melbourne from 2007- 2012.

She lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children: her son Edvard (whose lack of reading inspired the Zac Power series) and her daughter Emma (who inspired the EJ12 Girl Hero series). Her husband is relieved that she has no plans for a series for or about him ….

More about Louise Park: 

Louise has been involved in education and publishing for over 25 years. Today, she continues to combine her knowledge of literacy and reading acquisition with children’s publishing whilst running her own publishing company.

Louise began in schools as a primary school classroom teacher and then moved into teaching literacy and English to new arrival students in primary schools across Sydney, NSW.

Louise began training primary teachers in literacy teaching in the late 80s when she became a literacy advisor to schools and she continued in this role for 6 years. She has spent more than two decades running training courses, seminars and lectures for teachers in the teaching of guided reading, guided writing and literacy acquisition.

As part of her role as seminar presenter and advisor Louise has written numerous training modules, literacy guides and early literacy acquisition programs that are still implemented in primary schools today. In the early 90s she combined her love of literacy with a publishing career and has since moved through a wide variety of publishing roles within the industry including author, editorial, production, project management and Publisher.

In these roles she has been heavily involved in the creation of a large number of popular primary school and trade reading programs, Trade titles and multi-media resources. She has scoped and created and collaborated on some of the biggest reading programs sold worldwide today including Bookshelf and Reading Discovery.

Louise’s last position inside a large publishing house was as general manager and publisher at Scholastic Australia. She left Scholastic to start her own publishing company, Paddlepop Press, in 2005 where she continues to write, package, produce and create children’s books and resources for several prominent publishers including Scholastic, Pan Macmillan, Macmillan Education, ABC books, HarperCollins, Hinkler Books, Lemonfizz Media and more.

Louise continues to deliver seminars to librarians, teachers and parents on literacy and reading.

As an Author

Louise’s work with reluctant readers sparked a long love affair with writing for this group as well as the general reader. Her series successes include Zac Power Test Drives—a massively successful global-best-seller, Boy vs Beast— a series that sold over 250,000 titles in its first 6 months of selling in its home territory, Star Girl—a series currently being adapted for television, SmartyCat, Bella Dancerella and her latest series,  Harriet Clare.

In 2013 Louise had a title make it onto the prestigious list: 10 best selling books of all time in Australia (adults, children’s, fiction and nonfiction) with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting it at no.9. She also held 8 of the top 10 slots on the children’s charts for almost two months during February and March 2013.

‘No.9 on a list which includes Jamie Oliver, Jodi Picoult and Nora Roberts. Nielsen BookScan’s general manager Shaun Symonds believes it is the first time such a title has ever made it to the top 10. (May 9, 2013)

Louise writes under the following pseudonyms:

I. Larry

Mac Park

Poppy Rose

 

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From publisher to author: An interview with Margaret Hamilton

Last week, in the Double Act series, I featured several authors who had also become publishers. Today, I’m featuring someone who went the opposite journey, from publisher to author, and in between also took on many other roles in the industry.

MargaretHamiltonBisforBedtimeWMargaret Hamilton AM is one of the most respected and versatile figures in the Australian children’s books world. She has been involved in children’s literature as a librarian (at Parramatta City Library), as a bookseller, a publisher and a parent. In 1987 she left her position as a director at Hodder & Stoughton Australia to begin Margaret Hamilton Books with her husband Max. The company built up a reputation for high quality children’s books and was dedicated to the philosophy ‘that children have a right to the best of everything, especially books’. Margaret Hamilton Books won many awards and had considerable success on the world market. It became a Division of Scholastic Australia in 1996, where the imprint remains. Margaret’s passion for picture books, her enthusiasm for the world of Australian illustrators, and her recognition of the need for wider promotion of picture books, have led her to Pinerolo, the Children’s Book Cottage at Blackheath. She has been involved with the Children’s Book Council of Australia for many years and is currently on the National Board. Her Order of Australia Medal was received in 2008 – ‘for service to the arts through the promotion of children’s literature and literacy and through support for authors and illustrators’. She has also received the Lady Cutler Award, the Dromkeen Medal, and the Nan Chauncy Award, amongst other honours.

Margaret, you’ve had an amazing and varied career in the children’s books industry. How did you get your start?
When I left school I began work at Parramatta City Library. Although I wasn’t a reader as a child, I discovered I liked the books and relating to the children. One of my lecturers when I studied Librarianship was the legendary Maurice Saxby. He turned me on to children’s books and they became a lifelong passion. When I left the library I worked for a while in a bookshop, experiencing the commercial side of books.
As a publisher, you worked for a big company–Hodder–and then later started your own publishing company, Margaret Hamilton Books. What prompted you to do so? And was it like, going from the corporate publishing world  to the small-press world?
At Hodders I was Director in charge of publishing – the only female on the board! I was responsible for Hodders entire list, but children’s books were my favourites. It was after I had my daughter and my husband had extended the house that we started our own company. It meant I could be home for my daughter and concentrate on children’s books. As with being the only female on the Hodder board, I knew that our small company was up against the big boys. We had to be as good as them, if not better. So I continued to attend the Bologna children’s book fair and promoting our books everywhere. After ten years in publishing we became a division of Scholastic with a five-year employment contract. So working for a UK based company then for a multi-national based in New York were both very interesting insights into world publishing.
You have written and edited several non-fiction books about the children’s books scene, but last year your first picture book, B is for Bedtime, illustrated by Anna Pignataro, came out, garnering much acclaim. And there’s another picture book on the way. How did you make the transition? Have you always had ideas for picture books, or is this a new direction altogether for you? And what was it like, working with an illustrator on your own book?
The publication of B IS FOR BEDTIME was an absolute thrill for me – after over 30 years of publishing other people’s books, I was now an author of a published picture book myself! It’s very exciting how b is for bedtimewell it’s doing in the US – up to its third printing. I had always been very shy of showing publishers my work but plucked up courage and sent that to Little Hare. They will be publishing the next book COUNTING THROUGH THE DAY next year. Anna is illustrating that as well, and doing a magnificent job. I suppose being around and working with the best of Australian picture book creators, some of it has sunk in.
You’ve always been a strong supporter of picture books, and illustrators as well as authors. Which picture-book creators have most impressed or inspired you, over the years? 
That’s like asking me for the favourite book I published! I used to say that I didn’t have favourites, that all the books we published were our babies and we hoped they’d grow into award winners! I’ve worked with many of Australia’s picture book creators and am very proud of them. I’m also proud to have published books which are now classics and still available today – like THERE’S A HIPPOPOTAMUS ON OUR ROOF EATING CAKE by Hazel Edwards and The GRUG series by Ted Prior. I’m also extremely proud of the books Margaret Hamilton Books published: several by Patricia Mullins, THE VERY BEST OF FRIENDS by Margaret Wild & Julie Vivas (winner of the Picture Book of the Year Award), MY DOG by John Heffernan & Andrew McLean (multi award-winner), WHERE DOES THURSDAY GO? by Janeen Brian & Stephen Michael King and publishing Glenda Millard’s first book UNPLUGGED! illustrated by Dee Huxley. Glenda has gone on to become one of Australia’s most successful authors. All of these people are still creating superb books and continue to inspire me.

Pinerolo Cottage in winter

Pinerolo Cottage in winter

You are a founder of the lovely children’s book centre in the Blue Mountains, Pinerolo Cottage. Can you tell readers about the Cottage, and what happens there?
Pinerolo the Children’s Book Cottage (www.pinerolo.com.au) has the largest collection of original artwork from picture books in NSW, also a collection of picture books and reference books. We run one-day courses in creating picture books. I’m usually joined for the day by an award-winning author or illustrator. Recently the fabulous writer Glenda Millard was here for a record number of participants. I also love talking to groups of school children and to groups of adults, some of whom have come on a bus trip to Blackheath. The Illustrator in Residence program provides inspiration and mentorships for illustrators working on a project. I enjoy mentoring authors and illustrators, helping them in the development of their ideas. Most notable success recently is Lesley Gibbes, with her first picture book SCARY NIGHT, illustrated by Stephen Michael King, which was a CBCA 2015 Honour Book.

Pinerolo Cottage in spring

Pinerolo Cottage in spring

You’ve won many awards for your significant contribution to the children’s book world, including the Dromkeen Medal, the Nan Chauncy Award, the Lady Cutler Award, and Order of Australia, and more. And you’ve seen the children’s books scene evolving over many years. What are some things you’ve observed, in terms of trends, over those years?
I believe I’ve been extremely fortunate to have stumbled into a career in publishing. It’s been very stimulating and demanding but also very satisfying and fulfilling. That’s probably why I can’t retire! There’s always another wonderful writer or illustrator coming along and I love seeing them succeed. The Australian publishing industry is now recognised throughout the world. There was some nervousness a few years ago as publishers felt the threat of ebooks. However, they have come through this and are continuing to publish beautiful picture books. Sharing a picture book with a child, or a child reading it themselves, is a tactile experience that cannot be replicated on a tablet. Children especially are returning to real books and it’s such a pleasure to see so many beautiful Australian picture books being produced. Authors like Andy Griffiths are saving the book trade. His treehouse books have been number one on the bestseller lists. Top of the list for all genres. That’s a huge achievement.
I’ve also been involved with the Children’s Book Council of Australia for many years. It has undergone a change in the last few years and is now run by a National Board. I am Deputy Chair of the CBCA National Board and am finding it challenging. I’m also very hard at work with the Committee for the CBCA 12th National Conference which will be held in Sydney in May 2016 (http://cbca.org.au/NatConference.html). Also next year the 70th Children’s Book of the Year Awards will be presented in Sydney – where it all began in 1945. Maybe after that I might think about retiring!

 

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A brand-new model: interview with Lou Johnson, of The Author People

Lou JohnsonThe whole business of being an author today has changed a great deal, in a time when the publishing industry is going through rapid transformations. And so today I’m very pleased to present an interview with Lou Johnson, one of the founders and directors of The Author People, a brand new kind of business which aims to help authors negotiate these tricky times.

Lou is highly regarded within the international publishing industry. She has over twenty five years of publishing experience, including senior roles at Random House, Allen & Unwin and Simon & Schuster Australia where she was Managing Director between 2010–2014, overseeing a period of transformative change and the establishment of an Australian publishing division. She is also currently on the board of The Stella Prize. Her book industry representation includes Joint Vice-Presidency of the Australian Publisher’s Association (2012–2014) and membership of the Book Industry Collaborative Council (BICC) established by The Dept of Industry & Innovation (Dec 2012–June 2013). She is a regular panelist and speaker and has judged, chaired and developed numerous industry awards and initiatives.

Lou, the Author People is a very different concept to what’s around now in terms of publishing and author services. Can you tell us about it? What can an author who signs up with you expect?

We know that people’s love affair with authors and their books is as strong as ever but the way in which they discover, share, buy and interact with them is changing, driven by technology and the rise in social networking and online member communities.  As a result we have found that authors are now looking for an alternative and more collaborative approach from their publishers.

The Author People is author and people centric and we want to give people meaningful and direct ways in which to engage with authors and also pave the way for authors and people to interact in the future in ways yet to be imagined.

We see the relationship between authors and people transcending individual books, book format types and geographical borders.We really want to streamline the connection between authors and people by providing a different type of publishing approach, really relevant promotional support and a direct global transactional capability. We view our relationship with authors as one of co-producers and are very clear that there isn’t necessarily a one size fits all approach. If we are also representing authors we will be looking for opportunities beyond books like licensing, brand partnerships, content sales and events.

In terms of the audience, the whole focus is on making it easy for them to engage with and access authors and their work and we are working on the premise that we and the authors we represent will be responsible for creating that interest and demand, rather than the traditional reliance on retailers to do that.

Our promotional strategy is focussed on outreach so we can help bridge a connection between authors and the people who may be interested in them. This is largely driven via social media but we can also incorporate more traditional PR activities. Ultimately what we are trying to do is enhance or amplify authors’ own connection with people.  Our website is also a key component of this as it serves as an easy portal  for people to get to know a bit more about individual authors and purchase their books. In addition to our own shopping cart, we will have a number of local and global retail partners links on our site.  Our paper books are also available for any bookseller who would like to stock them via Ingram Content Group and ebooks available to multiple retailers globally via a third party distributor.

Apart from a different outlook, another key difference between us and other publishers is that we have an entirely different business model and structure and have also re-engineered the supply chain to support a more direct author/people link as well as flexibility, condensed production timelines and a lower cost base that we can pass the benefits of onto authors and their audiences. We also differ from traditional publishers in that we don’t provide advances, though we underwrite the development and promotional costs and still work with a royalty structure. Royalties are calculated on a case by case basis depending on scope, though in the majority of cases we would be offering higher than industry average royalties – especially for ebooks. In instances where we also represent authors we retain a commission on any additional revenue opportunities we source for them.

How did you and co-founder and director Tom Galletta first come up with the idea?Tom Galletta

The idea was borne out of the insights I gained through many years working in publishing. There is so much value that traditional publishers still offer but I felt there was a need for a disruptive approach to conventional publishing in order to be relevant in a continually changing environment and could see that authors were increasingly questioning the value of the traditional publishing approach. My thinking was further refined during my time as part of the Book Industry Collaborative Council and the final gap we identified was very much influenced by the findings of the Do You Love Your Publisher? survey research project conducted earlier this year, co-produced by authors Harry Bingham (in the UK) and Jane Friedman (in the US) http://www.thebookseller.com/news/authors-call-better-communication-publishers which has just been reinforced by the Macquarie University research.

I had been thinking about my own venture for some time and finally resigned from my role at Simon & Schuster last year to give myself the space the develop my thinking. Tom doesn’t have any background in publishing which was really important to me as I felt that I needed the input from someone external to industry. I approached Tom to help me with the business modelling and we worked out very quickly that it made sense to become partners.

What has it been like bringing the concept from idea to reality? What were the challenges and discoveries?

Exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure, though my time in the industry and specifically my role as MD at Simon & Schuster served as a very good apprenticeship. Having said that, there has been an enormous amount to learn along the way and a huge amount of multi-tasking so one key challenge is managing our own work processes and resourcing and staying calm and focussed. Getting the right partners is also crucial.

You were a publisher for many years. What insights do you think you bring from that side of the industry? What about Tom?

During my time in publishing I developed a deep understanding about the functions and value publishers can provide but also what can be done differently if you approach things through a different lens.  I also participated in enormous change and it’s not slowing down. I feel that in order to be successful in this environment its critical to be open minded and adaptable and that the exisiting industry paradigms don’t really support that. Given I have a really detailed understanding of the areas that I feel are getting in the way of that I thought we’d create a new paradigm.

Tom brings a really refreshing external and impartial view which further serves to challenge exisiting industry thinking. He also worked previously in artist management and digital so he brings a lot of insight, experience and capability from his previous roles.

You also have access to a team of partners with extensive knowledge of the industry. Can you tell us something about them and their roles?

Tom and I are the nucleus of The Author People and work with an international network of partners and providers. We’ve featured our founding partners on the website but none of them are employed by us or work exclusively with us and we will continue to build our network. We are a proverbial “lean startup”. That is an integral element of our business DNA. Our leanness, efficiency and expertise enables us to pass on all the value and benefits to authors and audiences.

The first books you’ve helped to bring into being have just come out. Tell us about them, and their authors.

Our first author was Adrian Simon. There is a big backstory to the relationship between the two of us. Adrian really liked the concept of The Author People and wanted to work with me so bringing his book to the world was another driving force behind bringing the vision behind The Author People to life. Adrian is the son of Warren Fellows, the infamous heroin smuggler who was imprisoned in Bangkwang Prison in Bangkok and later wrote the best-selling book The Damage Done. Adrian’s own story is extraordinary and its very exciting seeing him able to finally tell the other side of the story in his memoir Milk-Blood: Growing Up The Son Of A Convicted Drug Trafficker. However, Adrian’s book is just one way for Adrian to tell his story and connect with people so we are working with Adrian to develop other mediums like speaking events, partnerships and other content forms.

Our second author is ABC Northern Tasmania’s radio host and start up guru Polly McGee. Polly and her debut novel Dogs of India are a perfect fit for The Author People. Polly is an innovator and a natural connector, and Dogs of India also comes from her own “lived experience,” which is one of our key content areas. She originally crowd funded Dogs through Indiegogo, which served as a brilliant proving ground for her and the novel (as well as raising $8,500 for Vets Without Borders). Dogs of India is my favourite kind of book. It’s an enormously entertaining, warm and witty novel that packs a powerful message into a velvet glove. It is quite likely that Polly’s next book will be entirely different and may not even be fiction and our model completely support that.

What has been the response so far from booksellers and readers?

Authors love it, booksellers are supportive of it, especially our affiliate partners and it’s too soon to comment on the reader response but the early signs are good.

Where are you hoping The Author People will be, five years from now?

Thriving!

Seriously, we expect the business to continue evolving just like the external landscape. Our vision is to have the capability and flexibility to continue to diversify to ensure an ongoing deep relationship between authors and people as technology continues to develop and book forms continuing to evolve along with the ways people can interact with them and their creators.
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Guest posting on Felicity Pulman’s blog

I have a guest post today on fellow author Felicity Pulman’s blog. Entitled, ‘A time traveller between worlds’, it’s about how my multicultural background and turbulent family history were more than bit players in turning me into a writer, and particularly a writer of fantasy and other speculative fiction.

Here’s a short extract:

One of the reasons why I took instinctively, from a young age, to reading and later writing fantasy, and also fiction with supernatural elements, is linked to something right at the heart of my childhood. Of course it’s often so for every writer, but in my case it has to do with something very particular. For the classic fantasy tropes of the journey between worlds, the sojourn in strange places, and the sudden irruption of a different, disturbing reality into the everyday is at the heart of my own lived experience as a bilingual person of multicultural background, with a family history that is to say the least, rather complex.

You can read the rest here.

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Double Act 4: Dianne Bates and About Kids Books

In the fourth of my series on author-publishers, I’m interviewing Dianne Bates, who is in the early stages of setting up her own publishing company, About Kids Books.

Author of 130+ books, Dianne (Di) Bates is a full-time freelance writer. Di has worked as a newspaper and magazine editor and manuscript assessor. She founded Buzz Words  in 2006. Di is a recipient of The Lady Cutler Award for distinguished services to children’s Literature. Her website is http://www.enterprisingwords.com.au

Dianne-Bates

First of all congratulations on starting About Kids Books! What motivated you to start your own publishing company?

For many years I aspired to setting up a national children’s magazine; (I’d worked on Puffinalia and NSW Department of Education School Magazine). When I landed a job as editor of the national magazine Little Ears and saw how the owners went broke very quickly after investing a lot of time and money, I changed my mind, especially as I didn’t have any contacts (such as distributors) in that industry. More recently I’ve been inspired by self-publishers who have managed to set up their own book imprints so I’ve been able to ask a number of them of their experiences. All have given me valuable advice so I feel confident now of some degree of success.

What are your plans for the list? What will you be concentrating on?

I intend to publish quality children’s books for readers up to 12 years (excluding picture books). At the moment I would like to publish three books a year, assuming I find manuscripts which fit my brief. I have a personal preference for social realism, but am open to publishing all genres.

What are the challenges and pleasures so far?

I am constantly challenged by a lack of skill in computing so I need to invest money in employing people who are proficient in this area. At the moment I have someone designing a website for About Kids Books. Meanwhile, I am reading and assessing manuscripts which writers have sent me.

You have been a publisher before–of magazines and websites. How do you think this new direction will differ?

Hopefully I will discover and nurture new authors and illustrators, and help productive authors to extend their lists. Since 2006 I’ve offered numerous writing and illustrating competitions and have discovered talent through my publication of Buzz Words, a magazine for those in the Australian children’s book industry.

What do you think being a long-published author can bring to your new career as a book publisher?

Certainly over the past 30 and more years I’ve made many contacts in the industry, which as anyone can tell you is filled with generous people. My ‘name’ might result in people wanting to purchase the books I’ll be publishing and thus help defray costs.

Any advice for aspiring author-publishers?

Like any new venture, you need to do your homework: for example, check out printers, designers, distributors, book clubs and library suppliers before you take the first step. Having some capital behind you is also a must!

PS: Di Bates contributed a guest post earlier this year to my blog about her magazine, Buzz Words. You can read it here. 

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Double Act 3: Michael Wagner and Billy Goat Books

In the third of my series on author-publishers, I’m interviewing Michael Wagner.

wagnerMichael Wagner is the author of more than 70 books for children which include the much loved, 20-book Maxx Rumble series (still in print after 11 years); a collection of delightfully silly and warm-hearted stories about a family called The Undys; the best-selling picture bookWhy I Love Footy; and many more.

Prior to becoming a children’s author, Michael worked for ten years as radio broadcaster with the ABC, wrote and produced award-winning television animations, and wrote everything from copy to songs and comedy. His latest challenge is starting his own micro-publisher called Billy Goat Books, with the first book, Pig Dude: He Can Do Anything! published in late August this year.

First of all congratulations on starting Billy Goat Books! What motivated you to start your own publishing company?

Thanks Sophie. Well, to be honest I was motivated by two things: fear of rejection and the desire to, sometimes, just sometimes, have total creative control over my work.

By ‘fear of rejection’ I mean that I’ve recently discovered that some of my writing just doesn’t appeal to many publishers, even though it has widespread appeal to kids in schools. I speak in schools a lot and often test stories out. In 2014, I wrote a book called Pig Dude: He Can Do ANYTHING! When it felt ready to read, I tested it in a dozen different schools, and I was thrilled by how it went. It received an overwhelmingly positive, and very spontaneous reaction, maybe the best reaction I’ve ever received for any of my books. I felt like I was onto something.

But, when I sent it to a couple of publishers, it was fairly flatly rejected. Feeling a bit taken aback, I took it back into schools and tested it again. Once again, it got that big, positive reaction. But something told me sending it to more publishers was likely to be a time-consuming and, most likely, fruitless exercise. (I may have been wrong, but that’s what my instincts told me) And I didn’t really want to face a string of rejections with something that seemed particularly viable to me.

Now, having something of an entrepreneurial streak, I decided to publish it myself. It was a relief not to have to go through the submission process and I felt excited about being able to get started straightaway and about having so much more creative control over one of my books. Something about that really appealed. So I formed Billy Goat Books and published Pig Dude: He Can Do ANYTHING!Pig-Dude-Cover

What inspired the name of your press?

That’s actually a tough question. I tried about a million names, including Chilli Pepper Books (too suggestive of erotic fiction, apparently), Sparky Pepper Books (too random), Rocket Boy Books (too nothing), Bugle Books and Toot-Toot Books (both of which have flatulence connotations), etc, etc, and finally settled on Billy Goat Books. I like the playfulness of the name and the slight masculinity. My books are often quite boysie, so it felt right to me. And it hadn’t already been taken, which was a surprise, so I grabbed it.

What are your plans for the list? What will you be concentrating on?

As it costs quite a lot of money to created illustrated, printed books, I’ve decided to grow quite slowly – probably by only a book or two a year for the first few years. And, as I have a stockpile of my own stories ready to go, I plan to learn the business with books I’ve written.

I think, in a way, that’s fairer on other authors, because after a couple of years of learning how to create and sell books, I’ll be much better placed to provide a valuable service for others.

So, for now, it’ll just be my writing, but with the help of various illustrators, depending on who suit the different titles I have lined up.

What are the challenges and pleasures so far?

For me, there was an enormous learning curve. To minimise costs, I taught myself to design both the cover of a book and the interior pages – something I’ll have to learn all over again with each book, unless I employ a proper designer. That meant teaching myself software programs like InDesign and Photoshop – not easy!

And there are jobs like writing a contract for an illustrator, working out printing specifications, setting up distribution, creating Billy Goat Books, its brand and website, organising publicity, etc, etc, etc.

It’s a big job and probably best entered into completely naively, because knowing too much would be quite a disincentive. It’s best just to take it one job at a time.

On the other hand, if you’re creating a text-only ebook, the job is MUCH smaller. Printed books with illustrations are at the more difficult end of the publishing process, ebooks with only text are quite straightforward by comparison.

But, for me, learning new skills is exciting and having control over the product is extremely creatively satisfying. And when you hold what you’ve made in your hands for the first time, you know you did it yourself. So, on balance, I’ve enjoyed it immensely.

What do you think being an author can bring to your new career as a book publisher?

I think the big advantage many authors have is that they can test their material on their target audience. That takes a lot of the guesswork out of the publishing process.

Of course it’s not definitive. There are many successful books that would be incredibly difficult to read to an audience – like Goodnight Moon, for example. Really intimate books like that one are perfect for reading one-on-one, but might not work well with an audience. So not all fantastic books would test well. But when a book feels wonderful when it’s being read to an audience, chances are it’s worth publishing.

Being in front of kids many days a year allows authors to road test and refine some of their material and I think that’s a huge advantage. You really get the hang of what your audience likes when they’re sitting in front of you.

Any advice for aspiring author-publishers?

Hmm? Beware. If you’re printing illustrated books, it’s a lot of work and not cheap. But it’s very handy if you’ve been unable to land a publishing deal with something you truly believe in (having tested it with audiences), to be able to publish it yourself. Self-publishing or micro-publishing is a bit of a safety net, meaning you don’t have to simply shelve a manuscript you really feel is good enough (as far as any of us can tell that about our own work). It’s a fallback position, and that’s something authors have never really had before.

 

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Double Act 2: Julian Davies and Finlay Lloyd

Julian Davies

In the second of my series on author-publishers, I’m interviewing Julian Davies, one of the owners and founders of Finlay Lloyd, a non-profit publisher which has been going for nine years.  Julian describes himself as jack of a number of trades – writer, potter, painter and front-man for a non profit art gallery, The Left Hand. As well as publisher of course! He has lived in the mountains near Braidwood, New South Wales, for much of his adult life. The author of five novels, he has also written various stories and essays.

When and how did Finlay Lloyd start? What motivated you in the first place to start your own publishing company?

Finlay Lloyd was begun by four people – Phil Day, Ingeborg Hansen, Robin Wallace-Crabbe and me – all with somewhat varied interests in making books, but joining together to form a press with different values from mainstream publishers. Phil and Ingeborg had a background in producing inventive, beautifully set and designed handmade books, and had an interest in publishing fiction and poetry. Robin, a well-known writer and artist, had also designed books in his youth. I wanted to offer a counter-model, however modest, to commercial publishing. Our aim was to make

Phil Day

Phil Day

well-designed paper books while encouraging and supporting the sort of inventive writing that the big presses were too risk averse to back. It was important to me that FL was non-profit – we do not pay ourselves at all – in contradiction of the dominant paradigm.

How did you initially persuade booksellers to stock your books?

I simply got on the phone and called every bookshop I could locate, explaining what our intentions were. I made it plain that we were supplying firm sale, but that we didn’t want shops to buy books they couldn’t sell.

Have your aims and strategies as a publisher changed from the beginning? How?

Through the nine years since the establishment of the press our values and methods have remained consistent, but with the departure of Ingeborg and Robin from Finlay Lloyd, Phil and I have settled into a pattern where we discuss everything but he sets and designs the books while I act as editor and deal with publicity and sales. Our partnership has become closer and more interactive (hence his doing almost 400 drawings for my novel Crow Mellow). We envisage the press evolving to mainly undertake collaborative projects, whether between us or with others.

Crow Mellow cover 2Has working as a publisher impacted on your own career as an author–whether that be positive or negative?

I’ve found helping other writers realise their projects as well as possible an intriguing and valuable experience. It has given me a greater perspective on writing, publishing, and bookselling. Although this was not my intention in starting the press, Finlay Lloyd has finally provided a means to publish my own books in an inventive, unconstrained way, free from the commercial imperatives of the big presses.

What are the challenges and pleasures of small-press publishing, in your experience? Any memorable anecdotes?

I’ve found the many aspects of making books both rewarding and challenging – the demands on my time have been considerable. I’ve often wished I could clone myself in order to cope better, but my family likes to remind me that one of me is quite enough. Perhaps the keenest pleasure has been learning at close quarters how other writers think as they respond to editorial input.

flsmallsAny advice for aspiring author-publishers?

Because the book industry has been in such flux in recent decades more room has opened up for small presses. With their business model under threat, the big presses have withdrawn from some aspects of publishing. Furthermore, computer setting and the reduced cost of printing have made the process far more accessible. With these factors in mind, I’d suggest that anyone entering publishing may be brave but not necessarily as foolish as it might appear. I’d also suggest that having a broad and perceptive curiosity about all aspects of writing, typography, design and book production is a prerequisite as rare as it is obvious and valuable. I can’t stress that enough. There is a plethora of badly made books out there in the world. Small publishers should be self-critical and nimble enough to reinvent what they do imaginatively