My Journey to Affirm

Hey, Forbes here!

 

I am a children’s author with my debut book released by Affirm Press in early 2025, Saturday, Sunday. Busy day, fun day.

 

I got pretty lucky when it came to getting traditionally published … I mean, yes it was hard work, but there is also a great deal of luck, and ‘right place, right time’ in the publishing industry. I certainly feel very lucky to be in the position I’m in.

 

There are many reasons why I chose to go down the traditional publishing route – the main one is because I really want to focus on writing. I know these days, you still have to do so much of the marketing, social media, website, book store visits, school visits, etc., but I am not very good at keeping organised (I never even got around to having a launch) so I definitely wanted someone else to be in charge of as much as possible. If I had to think about chasing bookstores, and influencers, and illustrators, and printing companies, and everything else, I would likely have given up.

 

I have always written – mostly the ‘dear diary’ sort that developed into travel journals when I lived and worked overseas. In 2009, my nephew was born premature and only survived two weeks, which was a difficult time for our whole family, and I became quite interested in writing poems for him. One particular poem in 2016 gave me the idea for a children’s book … and oh boy, once that crossed my mind, all kinds of ideas came flooding in for all kinds of children’s books. I would be furiously jotting down ideas in the notes app of my iPhone, often throughout the night. The result being that I have far too many ideas, and not nearly enough time!

 

So I wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I like to have multiple working titles, but one story took my main focus as I had a newborn who wouldn’t travel in the car (among other difficulties). For that reason, I would get everything done, like shopping and errands in one day to minimise my stress, then try to stay at home until I really needed to go out again.

 

Initially the book idea was for a ‘flip book’ with a busy day story on one side, and a slow day story on the other. I had been working on it in spare minutes here and there and when I had bugged family members too much and got to the end of my abilities to make it any better, I decided to submit it to whomever I could. An internet search gave me around 8 to 10 publishing houses and agencies who were accepting unsolicited manuscripts, so I sent it out to all of them. In two days, I had a phone call from a prominent literary agent who said she loved it, but it needed work. She went through the type of changes she suggested I make and said to come back to her when they were done.

 

Unfortunately, the eager, amateur in me came back to her after only two weeks (which really, should have taken me months of editing) and it just wasn’t up to scratch, so she said ‘no’. I was crestfallen, but I knew I had something there, so I worked on it off and on for the next 18 months. After each time I had put it aside, I came back with fresh eyes and was able to make it so much better, so it really worked in my favour.

 

When I got to the absolute end of the line with what I could do, I decided that I would have it edited before I re-submitted, so I had the best chance possible. I emailed about twenty freelance editors in Australia and each one came back with something along the lines of ‘yes, can take it on, picture books take five hours at $75 per hour’. All bar one … she came back with a detailed email telling me how picture books are the hardest genre to succeed in, particularly when it’s rhyming, for multiple reasons, and that I should work and re-work it and read it to others, etc. I could tell she really cared. She wasn’t interested in just taking the job – she wanted to make sure I was going to get what I deserved out of the process. Long story short – I hired her! And she was fantastic. We gelled perfectly, and I can’t wait to work with her again.

 

After that, I searched for anyone accepting unsolicited manuscripts and came up with only two! This was in 2020 – thanks Covid! So I sent it off and wiped my hands. They both said if you don’t hear back within 6 months, they’re not interested … 6.5 months later I got an email from Affirm Press! They booked me in for a ‘meet and greet’ Zoom meeting and we talked all about the book and if I was willing to make some changes. (It was basically an interview to make sure I was going to be easy enough to work with.) Then they had to take it to their acquisitions team, which took about a month I think, and then I finally got the contract to sign! There weren't a whole lot of edits left to do by that point, but we went back and forth a few times to create the book that it is today.

 

Then came time for the illustrations, which I was quite lucky with as I had a lot of input. I let them know the style I was looking for and they gave me a mood board of about ten or so illustrators. Danny Snell accepted the contract, and he brought the book to life in ways I’d never even dreamed of.

 

We had some unexpected delays but the whole process, from signing to release date, was around three years, and I couldn’t be happier.