Chasing dreams

The one personality trait you need to make your publication dreams come true

It’s that time of year when everyone starts thinking about new year’s resolutions.

Maybe yours is to focus on your writing or illustrating.

Maybe it’s to find an agent or get published.

Those were my resolutions for years.

But the truth is, it isn’t easy to get published.

Why is it so hard?

First you have to develop your work to a publishable standard. (If you don’t know where to start with this, our resources post can help.)

If you want to be published by a traditional publisher, you’re probably going to need an agent.

But agents generally only take on a couple of new clients each year.

Even if you get an agent, it doesn’t guarantee you a book deal. Publishers receive many, many more manuscripts than they can ever acquire.

Chasing something which feels elusive and pouring time, energy and money into it can feel exhausting, especially if there are other demands on your time like a full time job and/or a family.

Becoming a published author or illustrator can feel like an unattainable dream.

But hope is not lost because while you can’t change the publishing landscape, there are many things you can control starting with adopting the one personality trait that all authors and illustrators have in common.

What do authors and illustrators all have in common?

Everyone who has ever made a book has something in common.

They didn’t give up on their dream.

There might have been ups and downs along the road but they

Kept. On. Going.

That’s it.

The one personality trait you need more than anything if you want to make it as an author or an illustrator is determination.

You can see this in some of our Friday interviews - Rebecca Cobb said she almost ‘gave up’ at one point and Anna Wilson talked about how writers need to be ‘fierce’ and ‘persistent’.

If you give up, you definitely won’t get published.

But if you keep going, well, who knows what will happen.

The many paths to publication

When I was a Rights Assistant at Puffin I always used to read the author biographies on the ATIs (advanced title information sheets which summarise major sales points for each book, also called AIs or TIs).

I always wanted to know how the authors got published.

How did they make their dream come true?

What did they do?

What was their secret?

What reading those bios taught me is that no one’s journey is ever the same. There is no one path to publication. There is no secret.

I’m still fascinated by how other author and illustrators got published. (One of the things I love about our weekly Friday interviews is getting to be nosy and ask people this.)

It’s always a great reminder that everyone’s path is different and that it is pointless comparing yourself to other people. Your journey is your own.

My story

My own route to publication was long.

I loved books as a child (both reading and writing them as you can see from the photo of me with my story ‘Rabbit’ below).

But I didn’t meet an author and honestly never considered that it was something I could do as an actual job.

Halfway through studying for an English degree aged 21 I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Around the same time Gillian Cross, the children’s author who wrote The Demon Headmaster, came to talk to the English Society at Uni. I realised perhaps making up stories could be a career…

Shortly after that I decided I wanted to become a published author and wrote my first middle grade children’s book.

I imagined I would write a book, find an agent and become a bestselling author. It couldn’t be that difficult, right?

It would take me another 15 years to get published.

After graduation I moved to London with the aim of finding a job in children’s publishing as it felt like the closest thing I could do to writing.

After a work experience placement at Puffin, I worked as a temp in their marketing department before accepting a permanent position as a Rights Assistant at Penguin a few months later.

I decided to read as many children’s books as possible and learn everything I could about the industry.

At the same time I signed up for a ‘writing for children’ evening class at City Lit taught by Sophie McKenzie and formed a writing group with some of the ladies I met there.

I was writing teen fiction and poems at the time and submitting to lots of magazines and online zines. I had some short pieces published.

At 28 I finally got my first agent. Hurrah. This was it! Surely a book deal would soon follow.

But… it didn’t. My manuscript went out on submission but failed to find a home. I started working on a new teen book but fell pregnant and my writing ground to a halt as I struggled with morning sickness.

When my son was born I started writing again, slowly but surely. But I couldn’t get my manuscript to a place where my agent was happy with it and we parted ways when I was nine months pregnant with my second son and really struggling with panic attacks and prenatal anxiety.

At this point I seriously wondered if I would ever get published.

It was a real a low point.

Maybe I just wasn’t good enough to be an author?

I thought about giving up but decided to pause and focus on looking after my newborn and toddler instead.

Taking a break and removing the pressure was exactly what I needed and a few months later I started having lots of ideas for picture books. My old agent had told me not to write them as she’d said my voice didn’t suit them.

But, I was reading lots of picture books to my boys and I really liked them.

I reasoned that one person’s opinion was just that, an opinion and I started to write again.

I discovered I could pick up and put down picture book manuscripts in the tiny snatches of time I had with two small children as the texts themselves were only 500 words long.

My husband

James Jones

had never considered illustrating children’s books until he started reading them to our own kids (he was a book cover designer when we met), but as I brainstormed ideas with him, he started to get excited…

We decided to work on some books together and played around with words and pictures until we had some stories ready to submit.

Aged 34 I signed with my second agent. She sold our debut picture book The Perfect Fit to OUP.

The Perfect Fit was supposed to publish in the spring of 2020 but publication got delayed due to the first lockdown. It ended up publishing in the second lockdown in 2021 instead when I was 36.

In the two years that followed I had five more picture books published and learned a HUGE amount about all sorts of new things from events to book promotion.

Aged 39 I signed with my third agent and I’ve now had seven children’s books published with more coming out in 2025 and 2026. My books have been translated into 19 languages, won awards and been selected for the Scottish Book Trust.

Even though I’ve been published, I still have manuscripts that get rejected and/or ghosted by publishers. Author

Simon Philip

has written about this a lot. He keeps detailed records, (I am in awe of his spreadsheets), which show he has around a 10% hit rate with texts.

I think this is probably true for me too, although I don’t have a spreadsheet to back it up. I am often asked at events how many books I’ve written and I always say I’ve had seven published with many more that live only on my laptop.

I often think being a writer, or an illustrator is a crazy way to try and make a living. We spend so much time thinking and working on stories in the hope that one day, someone, somewhere will pay us for them.

But there are no guarantees.

So, why do it then?

Well, I write because I can’t not.

I love making up stories.

Jojo Moyes

wrote a post about this recently which I found myself nodding along too. It’s here if you want to read it.

My writing journey may not have looked like I thought it would back when I was 21 and first dreamed of being published, but I wouldn't change a thing.

I’ve learned so much along the way. My writing has got better, I’m a lot more resilient and I believe in myself more too.

Is getting published impossible?

No, of course not.

It probably won’t be easy, but nothing worth having ever is right?

If your resolution, your dream, is to get a book deal, then the best piece of advice I can give to you is - don’t give up.

Keep going. Keep writing and drawing and dreaming and learning.

You will need to be brave and determined. You will need to hone your craft and grow a thick skin as you will get rejected at some point. (All authors and illustrators do.)

Your journey might not be straightforward.

It might take time, and there are no guarantees, but it is definitely possible.

And it is possible even if you have other commitments and are time/cash poor. I’ve worked with writers before who find it hard to invest in themselves and their dreams - either because of a lack of self belief or funds. Sometimes both.

But life is too short not to try. Besides, if you don’t believe in yourself and your dreams, who will?

There are some pricey courses and mentoring options available but it doesn’t have to cost the earth - there are plenty of free and low cost resources available too.

One of the reasons we made membership to Words and Pictures just £5 is a month is because we want to help make publishing accessible.

How can you help yourself?

Chasing dreams is hard work. As well as being determined, there are lots of other things you can do to help yourself along the way:

• Hone your craft - keep writing and illustrating. Keep playing with words and/or pictures.

• Keep learning - there are so many courses available now to suit every budget including Golden Egg Academy, Curtis Brown, Jericho Writers, Write Mentor and City Lit amongst others. (I’m running a one day picture book writing course in Cornwall in Feb.)

• Find a mentor - working with a mentor one-on-one can really help elevate your writing. I offer this privately and through a range of companies. I’m also currently offering free mentoring for an underrepresented picture book writer- the details are here.

• Join a writing group - finding the support of other writers can be invaluable. I’m still a member of the same writing group I joined when I was 23.

• Educate yourself - the more you understand about how the industry works, the better.

• Read as many children’s books as you can and spend time in bookshops. I wrote about the importance of market research here.

• Go to literary festivals and watch events with children’s authors and illustrators.

• Become a paid subscriber to Words and Pictures to read all our posts as we demystify the industry. You can also join me and James for a monthly live to ask us any questions you might have about publishing. Our next live chat will be on Sunday 26th January at 8pm.

If you take one thing from this post, I hope it is that you should never, ever give up on your dreams.

Please do let us know if you found this post helpful please as we love hearing from readers.

Over the next few weeks we’re planning on writing about some of the topics listed below. If there is something else you’d particularly like us to cover, just drop a message in the comments.

• Money - how advances work and how much authors and illustrators earn

• What happens at an acquisition meeting

• I’ll share a first and final draft of a published picture book text to give you a glimpse of the editorial process

Naomi x