And now, it’s time to Chill
The mock-up for my latest book has arrived! I was excited because a) I love getting surprises in the post and b) it took two and a half years to get to this point. Why so long? Well, there’s a few reasons:
1) Working a full-time day job – this never helps when you you’re trying to write and illustrate a 32 page picture book.
2) Most publishers didn’t know what to do with it. Was it a picture book, activity book or novelty? Due to its nature it was hard to define what category it fell under, or know how to market it. It was almost two years before I found an independent willing to pick it up and run with it.
3) Differences in opinion – the publisher, agent and I all had to agree on the style, which we eventually got to after a bit of experimenting.
4) Working on another book – I was, and still am, writing a novel alongside this project (yep, crazy I know).
So you see, writing isn’t always a clear cut journey. It’s hard work, fraught with obstacles and self-doubt, and not for the faint hearted. But you’ll always know if it’s the right path for you, because nothing, but nothing will ever get in your way of delivering your story to the world!
Chill with Lil will be published in Spring 2018 by Ragged Bears.