How to help an author or illustrator

Without it costing a penny

When I was growing up my favourite authors didn’t seem like real people - they were just names on book covers. (This was back in the days when social media didn’t exist and dinosaurs roamed the earth.)

The first time I met an author in real life was at University when Gillian Cross (who wrote The Demon Headmaster) came to speak about creative writing. It was only after her visit that I decided to seriously pursue my dream of becoming a children’s author. Before that it hadn't really occurred to me that it was a job I could actually do…

It’s a different world now and readers are able to connect with the people behind their favourite books in a much more immediate way.

I’ve written before about how important it is to cultivate a creative community and how supportive the children’s book publishing world is.

Today I’m going to talk about some of the things you can do to help the authors and illustrators you like and admire.

Most of these things will only take a few minutes of your time and even better, they’re all free.

On their own these suggestions might seem fairly insignificant but if enough people do them, they’ll have a significant, measurable impact on an author/illustrator’s career.

They will help increase the likely of them being offered a new publishing deal, improve their discoverability online and boost their earnings (which is crucial when you remember that the average author earns £7000 a year). If you can do just one of these suggestions, the author/illustrator in question will be forever grateful.

These suggestions are all things that we do to help other authors and illustrators whenever we can.

We both believe kindness makes to world go around and the more people around us we can help on our way through life, the better.

Help authors and illustrators for FREE:

• Recommendations. If you like a book, recommend it to friends who have children, to teachers you know and on social media. Word of mouth recommendations always carry a lot of weight.

• Follow them. Follow the author/illustrator on social media. Publishers look at engagement and followers when acquiring books and a bigger audience can really help.

• Get social. Don’t just follow your favourite authors/illustrators, interact with them and their posts. Authors and illustrators love it when you say hello!

• Write a review. It doesn’t cost anything to write a review on websites like Amazon or Waterstones and you don’t have to have bought the book from that website to do it either. The algorithm on Amazon prioritises books with over 50 reviews so doing this can really help your favourite books become more visible and hopefully increase their sales too.

• Hit subscribe. Some authors/illustrators have a YouTube channel. Once they have over 1000 subscribers and their videos have been watched a certain number of times, this means they’re able to earn a small income from it. Some of the videos on our YouTube channel have been watched over 60,000 times but we still need 300 more subscribers to get to that magic number. If you have a moment to hit subscribe we’d be super grateful!

• Substack. If your favourite author/illustrator has a substack, become a free subscriber to learn more about them and get a behind the scenes glimpse into their process/work.

• Head to the library. Borrow their books from the library. Thanks to the wonder of Public Lending Rights in the UK, every single time you borrow a book from the library, the author/illustrator receives some money up to a total of £6600 paid once a year. This scheme is also free for authors/illustrators to sign up to.

• Events. Keep an eye out for free events at bookshops, often authors/illustrators do these around the launch of a new book and it’s always nice when a crowd turns up rather than just a handful of people.

How else can you support authors and illustrators?

These options do all require a little cash but they won’t break the bank.

• Buy books. Buying books directly supports authors and illustrators because sales = royalties. And because better sales figures also means more chance of the publisher being pleased and wanting to acquire more books from them.

• Pre-orders. Ok so this still technically falls under ‘buy books’ but pre-ordering an author’s books can really help an author/illustrator because all of the pre-order sales will fall into the first week of publication which gives it a better chance of getting into the coveted bestseller charts. (Fun fact. You only have to be in one of these charts once to call yourself a bestselling author/illustrator.) If anyone is interested, my next picture book The Hug Button publishes in July and can be preordered here.

• Literary festivals. Buy tickets to go and see your favourite authors and illustrators at events. Not only are festivals lots of fun and really inspiring, you’ll get the chance to ask questions and get your book signed too. Literary festivals can also be super helpful for research too.

• Buy prints. Some illustrators sell prints and cards based on their artwork. This is another income stream which can be really helpful since earning money from books alone tends to be fairly sporadic and tricky to predict. We have a print shop which you can take a look at here.

• Substack. Consider becoming a paid subscriber if you can. Most authors/illustrators only charge around £5 a month and for that most either offer a service like we do here or they share exclusive content. You can check out our resources post for links to some other children’s authors and illustrators who are also here on substack.

We hope this post has been helpful and has given you some ideas for how you can support your favourite authors and illustrators.

UPDATE: Words and Pictures

Previously one post a month with advice in for writers and illustrators or invaluable insights about the business of publishing has been free, but from now on they’ll all be for paid subscribers only.

Free subscribers will still be able to read the monthly round up post of submissions opportunities and the interviews we share on a Friday.

For just £5 a month or £50 a year, less than the price of two coffees a month, paid subscribers will be able to read all of the posts on a Monday where we share everything we know about how to write and illustrate children’s books and how the industry works.

Paid subscribers will also be able to join us for a live monthly zoom call to ask us any questions they might have about their work in progress or the industry.

It takes time to write all of these posts and we really believe that £5 a month offers excellent value for all the insights and information that we share. Especially compared to the cost of mentoring or courses. (If you are interested in mentoring, Naomi does offer this too, just hit reply to this email or leave us a comment.)

Finally we want to say a HUGE thank you - we are so grateful to all of our subscribers whether you’re free or paid and for the community that we’re building here.

If you’d like to become a paid subscriber but can’t afford it, just drop us a message and we’ll comp you a subscription for six months.

Love Naomi & James x