Accidental author

My journey to becoming an author isn’t a conventional one, in fact I’d go so far as to call myself an accidental author. I studied English Literature and Educational Studies at University, as I’d always had a dream of becoming a teacher, and I was then able to complete my PGCE with early years as a specialty. Writing wasn’t really something I had thought about, although I’d always loved reading, especially as a child too.

My career path

I graduated with my PGCE and my first child was born two weeks after I qualified, although I didn’t go into full time teaching, so that I could be there for her and instead did supply work, finally finding my place in early years settings, such as pre-schools. I loved the fluidity of pre-school work and how I could make independent decisions, so I stayed in this sector for most of my teaching career, completing my Early Years Professional Status qualification on top of my teaching. I was really lucky to work with incredible teams and by the time I eventually stepped back from teaching I felt that I had achieved all I could have hoped for.

I spent a few years just figuring things out, as a career post teaching wasn’t something that I had ever considered, and during this time I discovered that I was neurodivergent, which helped me to gain a better understanding of myself and what I needed in life. Making such a big change later in life was a bit nerve-racking and I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I felt really strongly about giving it a go. I set up my sustainable brand Eco-Able in 2019 as a way to offer sustainable products to help in everyday life.

Journey to writing

It was around this time that I started thinking about the stories that I’d half written during my time teaching, small ideas of stories that I had jotted down at the time, but hadn’t done anything with yet. Eventually I wrote a new story, combining my early years experience and my new love of sustainability. I’d recently met Anna through a local networking group and during Covid lockdown we began talking about my book idea and then started working on ‘Away’ together. ‘Away’ is a beautifully illustrated picture book for early years, aimed at teaching children about waste in the environment, as well as being a lovely gentle story set in the woodland with favourite woodland animals.

It was such a beautiful project to work on but I had no idea how to create a book or market it at this point, I just knew that I wanted to see it become a book in some way. When my Mum was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, I really wanted to get this book made to show her before it was too late. Anna introduced me to Tash from Culpepper and Co and she designed the book layout for me. I managed to cobble some money together with the help of my husband, to get the first print run done of my first book and I was able to get this completed through local printers, Tewkesbury Printing Company, Andy was amazing with the project and really helpful in meeting my sustainable goals for the book. We were able to self-publish via Eco-Able and managed got it printed in time for my Mum to see the book. To say she was proud is probably an understatement and I was so grateful she was able to see what I’d achieved before she died later that year.

I’m really passionate about using my expertise in early years to write about topics of importance and that has become my USP by default. I love creating gentle stories which children love, whilst focusing on purposeful topics, helping children learn, connect with nature and people.

Why black and white illustrations?

I’m often asked why I’ve chosen black and white illustrations, I didn’t know at the time of the first book that I was neurodivergent, but I felt drawn to the calm and simple colourway of the black and white illustrations and now I couldn’t even contemplate them being in colour. I like the way it makes the reader focus on the pictures, seeing the details and lines more clearly. I feel that it brings a sense of calm as well, where usually life is so full of colour and stimulation, that it becomes a source of sanctuary from that.

Top tips

I learnt a lot along the way, so I want to share some of my tips about what worked well for me:

• finding an illustrator with a style you love is fundamental for picture books – if you are fortunate to sign with a publisher, they may find one for you, but it’s definitely worth thinking about the style you want your illustrations to be, plus always have a contract with them
• get your work proof read and proof read again – it’s so easy to miss mistakes when you’re reading the text again and again, so it’s so important to get help from multiple people/places to read it through and make sure that the spelling is right, punctuation, speech marks etc are all correct, because once you send or publish there’s no way of changing it until a reprint, and that can be costly
• if you’re self-publishing then you will also need someone to do the book design and layout for you – I used Culpepper and Co because they had experience of book design and this is a really important part of the process
• check the book size – don’t make the mistake I made which was to set the book size without checking if I could get book packaging to fit, I’ve now created a little bit of a problem for myself as standard boxes and book packaging doesn’t quite work and I’ve had to find solutions to this
• you’ll need ISBNs for all of your books and quite likely to also need barcodes as well – Nielsons can help with both
• set your pricing – so important to know your numbers, ie how much does an individual book cost to print, is it cheaper to print at a certain number, and what margin does that leave you, the booksellers and what do you need to pay your illustrator in royalties etc
• send a copy to the British Library – this is a legal requirement for all book titles and you may also be asked to send a copy to other regions as well
• budget for press and pr copies – you’ll want to send copies out for review and for press, so make sure you factor that into your costs
• if you are printing the books yourself, find a printers you can trust and one who will work to your specifications – it’s also worth noting that you might want to do a test print or a small print run initially, rather than go big and then have copies sitting around
• last piece of advice is to go for it with all you have – if you have an idea and want to see it in print, then just go for it and don’t be afraid to do it yourself, it’s not as hard as you might think and I haven’t regretted it once!

More about our books

Now my business is more heavily focused on the range of books I have written and created, proving sustainability is possible in book making, and showing that it’s possible to do things differently. All of my books are made with 100% recycled, carbon balanced paper as certified by the world Land Trust, using eco inks and without plastic lamination on the covers, I think this makes them fairly unique and it’s something that I won’t compromise on. I hope to continue adding to our range, with books 6 and 7 coming later this year hopefully. I stock a range of products now which support the books, some of which I also create and make and some I stock from other businesses. I love sourcing and curating book themed gift boxes for children to help bring books to life and give the gift of reading to little ones everywhere, I especially love our baby boxes, as reading to babies from birth is so important. We also sell to educational suppliers, settings and schools.

Want to know more about our processes or find out about our range of topics, head to our book section HERE.