Words and Pictures with Heather Wright from Reading Rocks
How authors/illustrators are selected for festivals, what really makes a book sell in a bookshop, tips for events and the impact of school visits
We are so excited to share a fantastic interview this week with Heather Wright from Reading Rocks. She is incredibly passionate and knowledgable about the world of children’s books and we learned lots from this interview including:
What really makes a customer pick up and buy a book in a shop and why this isn’t what you might expect.
How she chooses which books to include in her teacher subscription boxes.
Tips for authors/illustrators doing events and why it’s so important to connect with your audience, be yourself and allow children the chance to move!
The importance of book cover design.
How authors and illustrators are selected for literary festivals.
The impact of school visits.
Heather Wright is a former primary School teacher and school leader, with career highlights including leading her school in a ‘Year of Reading’, which won an Educate Award and was shortlisted for a TES Award.
Heather’s influence in the education world was recognised in 2018 when she was listed in the top ten influential educators by TES.
She now runs Reading Rocks, which shares the book love with Primary Schools through teacher book subscriptions, book-selling to schools and author events.
She has also run an independent children's bookshop, Stories by the Sea in St Ives, Cornwall and been co host of successful education podcast, The Teacher Squad Podcast!
Heather was part of the small founding team starting the St Austell Festival of Children's Literature in 2023 and is now a festival director as it goes into it's third year.
At the festival, Heather will be found at the bookshop as festival bookseller, happily recommending books to families and managing all the author signing queues! Heather's vision is to make reading rock for all children!
A huge thank you to Heather for taking the time to chat to us, especially as she’s so busy on the run up to the St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature.
You can watch our full conversation here:
You can find out more about Heather and Reading Rocks on her website and instagram.
You can also find out more about the St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature which is taking place on 14th June in Cornwall. Tickets for each event cost just £1 to ensure it is accessible for everyone. Tickets are still available.
If you want to learn more about how authors/illustrators are booked for literary festivals, how they prepare and how much they get paid, then this post is for you.
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Every month we’ll hold a live session for community members to ask us anything and everything they want to know about writing, illustrating and getting published. The next live session is Sunday 29th June 8pm GMT.
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