Authorly Honest on Substack

I’ve joined the Substack bandwagon, and now have my own - Authorly Honest. In Authorly Honest, I’m going to be exactly that: awfully honest. Perhaps even stupidly, career-killingly honest. Actually, that’s a terrible idea, so scrap that. I’ll be as honest as I can without breaching my contracts. Yep, that sounds better. I’ll be giving you a warts-and-all insight into the writing, feelings, finances and life of a children’s author.

And just to be clear, that children’s author is – surprise, surprise – David Walliams!

Only kidding. It’s me!

(Sorry.)

But…why?

Good question. Thanks very much for asking it.

Truthfully, because I think it will be good for me (and interesting for you). Good to have another outlet for my writerly urges. Good to have a distraction from maniacally refreshing my emails whilst I’m on sub. Good to have a place to (occasionally) vent, to celebrate the little wins, to spout nonsense (that will probably rhyme), and to share what I’ve learned so far as a children’s author.

Oh, hang on – you meant why so honest, didn’t you?

Well, because the publishing world is notoriously opaque, particularly for those outside it trying to look in. Often, it’s also pretty muddy for those of us already inside.

For instance, I don’t have any idea how my peers’ actual experiences compare to mine (though, naturally, I’d love to know!), partly because I think we all feel a pressure in this social media age to present only our highly-filtered highlight reels.

But what I DO now have is over ten years’ experience of the children’s-book-world bubble, experience that I want to share – because I’m on a mission to make the opaque more transparent. And because I think (hope? pray?) you’ll enjoy me sharing it.

So, if you want to know more about writing for children, what it’s like to be an author, what submissions look like etc, or are simply curious about how outstandingly wealthy we all are (🤣😂😅🥹😭), why not check it out here and subscribe?

What do subscribers receive?

ALL SUBSCRIBERS:

• Poetic Posts – a poem every Tuesday

• FAQ Friday series – one FAQ answered every Friday

• monthly Library Hauls – recent picture book reads and recommendations

• Nosy Newsletter – a round-up of anything noteworthy that’s happened in my life that month.

• introductory posts of my paid subscriber series, to get a feel for what they offer

PAID SUBSCRIBERS:

• my Approaching Agents series

  (detailing my journey to securing an agent, in which I share: what I did wrong….and then right; the email, cover letter & manuscripts that I sent to my agent; and general advice for approaching agents)

• my Submissions on Show series

  (a comprehensive look at my submissions from 2019 to date: which texts were submitted, inc. some snippets/full manuscripts; (anonymised) publisher feedback; response and success rate, and more…)

• my Money Matters series

  (in which I discuss topics including advances – and which of mine I’ve earned out – my year-on-year earnings, approx. sales figures and royalties, PLR payments etc)

• more behind-the scenes content

You can find out more about subscriptions to Authorly Honest here. I hope to see you over on Substack soon! x