Words and Pictures with Jasbinder Bilan

Costa Award Winning Author shares her inspiration, top writing tips and path to publication

Jasbinder Bilan’s debut children’s novel Asha And The Spirit Bird won the Times/Chicken House Prize, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, longlisted for the Jhalak Prize, shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Prize and won the Costa Children’s Book Award.

Her second novel Tamarind And The Star Of Ishta was longlisted for the Blue Peter Book Prize and won the Indie Children's Book Award. India, Incredible India was shortlisted in the Younger Non-Fiction category of the inaugural The Week Junior Book Awards.

Jasbinder was born on a farm in the foothills of the Himalayas. She moved to Nottingham when she was one and a half and now lives in Bath with her husband and children.

We met Jasbinder earlier this year when she came to Cornwall to take part in the St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature. We were really excited to ask her some questions about her writing as we’re big fans of her beautiful books.

What do words and pictures mean to you?

I have been lucky enough to have had some of my words illustrated with pictures so I guess in those books it’s really interesting to see how the artist interprets my storylines. I think pictures enhance a story and bring their own nuances and beauty to the book. I always get hugely excited the first time I see the pictures!

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what else did you want to be?

When I was a little girl my favourite things were writing, drawing and looking out of the window and imagining stories. I had a vivid imagination and you seriously wouldn’t believe the things I saw! In fact I only realised recently that some of those things weren’t real. But that’s the beauty of writing your own stories. You can take children along with you and if you do a good enough job they’ll go along with anything!

So yes - I wanted more than anything to see my ideas in a book that I could borrow from a library, but it took a while to make the dream a reality!

But I did get to do my other dream job which was to be teacher!

Are you a full time writer now? If not, what other work do you do around writing?

I’ve been writing full time since about 2020. Before then I would juggle teaching and writing. It feels like a huge privilege to be able to do this dream job full time and I never take it for granted.

Even though I write full time it’s not as if all my days are filled with writing. As an author there are many other things that make up my days such as school visits, festivals and other literacy related activities.

I was recently lucky enough to be invited to Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Queen’s Essay Competition. That was one of my personal career highlights along with the day I was invited to do my author event for Queen Camilla. It was slightly nerve wracking but what an honour!

Have you ever done any creative writing courses and if so, how did they help your writing? Would you recommend them to other writers?

Even though I always wanted to be a writer I don’t think I knew how to make it happen even when I was an adult. I then realised that the first thing I needed to do was to write a story! Which I know sounds obvious now!

The Bath Spa MA in Creative Writing has a brilliant reputation so I took a leap of faith and enrolled full time. It was hard work since I was still teaching, but it was incredible. It’s where I wrote my debut ASHA and the Spirit Bird.

What creative writing courses do is give you time and space and permission to write. They also create a community of supportive writers which is really important because there are so many ups and downs as the journey progresses. I’d definitely recommend doing a course. You don’t have to do a masters, there are plenty of shorter courses that you can dip your toes in.

Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?

They come from everywhere. When I wrote my debut I knew exactly what I wanted to write. Sometime when you have waited so long to do something you have a clear idea of what your first project will be.

I knew I wanted to write a story inspired by the close relationship with my grandmother and my family roots near the Himalaya.

I also knew I wanted to write an exciting adventure that would take readers through a window to another world. The other thing that was important to me was to write the sort of book I would have loved as a little girl, the sort of story with someone like me as the lead character.

As a writer I’m always looking around for ideas and anything can give me inspiration for a story, from a starlit sky to a painting in a museum.

How did you go from having an idea for a story to getting your first book published?

Writing a story you love is one thing, but getting it published is another story completely! My route to being published was unusual. After my MA I felt my story still needed work. I had written it quite quickly in six months.

I didn’t get an agent straight away so I edited it for a year and then entered it for The Times Chicken House Prize. The prize was incredible - to have your story published by this amazing publisher. I honestly didn’t think I had much of a chance , there were around a thousand entries!

But it won and in the same year it was shortlisted and won the Costa Book Award. This meant that my debut year was beyond my wildest dreams. And I was hugely grateful for everything and for the way my publisher supported me and continue to do so.

I’d like to add that the journey to publication can be really rocky and there will be moments when you feel like giving up – just as I did. But it’s important to keep going and remember that it only takes one agent and one publisher to love your story.

And although from the outside it can seem like published authors are living the dream, often what you see is the result of resilience and lots of set-backs before that magical moment of being accepted.

Is there anything about the children's industry that surprised you when you had your first book published?

There were some lovely surprises actually. The best thing about being a published author is the sheer scale of what’s to come. It’s given me such wonderful opportunities some of which have been a little scary! Like being on Front Row! The real treasure is the people you’ll meet, including booksellers, other authors and of course readers.

One of the surprising things is how much of your books’ success is out of your control. It’s a muliti million-pound industry but children’s books also intersect with education and this creates a need for equity in marketing and representation. I really hope the recent report findings from CLPE will give the industry a shake for the better.

What are the best bits and the hardest bits about creating children’s books?

Writing is hard! But hard things are worth gold dust in the end!

Personally I love the creative process, the early stages of an idea, when you can legitimately go to museums and art galleries, browse quirky details and spend some time bringing your story closer.

I love having a new notebook for each project. And I love finding things to stick in and thoughts to start my process.

When I’m excited enough I’ll begin freehand writing and write the first few chapters. Later on, I’ll begin on the computer.

Seeing my story appear on the blank page, gives me such a buzz . When I begin I don’t always know everything about my story and for me it’s what keeps it fresh and interesting. I’m definitely a panzer but I think about my ending - then I fire my arrow in the right direction!

Honestly I love everything about writing. It makes me so proud of my little girl self to know that one day my dream would come true!

Can you tell us what you're working on now?

I have just finished edits for book 6. I don’t think I’m allowed to say very much about it unfortunately but I’ll sneak in that it’s another historical adventure with a mystery woven through!

What advice would you give someone who wants to write their own children's book?

I’d say make a start!! You can’t be a writer if you don’t have a story. Another good tip is to put aside a little time each day if you can and force yourself to write something. Even if it’s 30 mins that’s still two and a half hours each week! Consider enrolling for one of the many courses - Arvon run lots or if online works better then maybe Write Mentor.

A huge thank you to Jasbinder for taking the time to answer all our questions. You can find out more about Jasbinder on her website, instagram and Bluesky.

Feeling inspired?

Don’t forget - we have a free resource post for writers and illustrators here and we have a list of current submission opportunities for children’s book creatives in this post too.

Naomi is also currently offering 3 hours of free picture book mentoring to an underrepresented writer living in the UK. More details can be found here.

Join us live

For all our paid subscribers, our next live zoom call will be Sunday 15th December at 8pm.

We cannot wait to chat to you in person. It’ll be a chance to meet us and ask us anything you’d like to about making children’s books and getting published.

If you can’t make it but have a question you’d like answered just drop us a message as we’ll send a recording around to paid subscribers afterwards and will answer as many questions as we can.

It costs just £5 a month or £50 a year to subscribe and access all the benefits from being a member of the word and pictures community. If you’d like to upgrade your subscription to a paid one before then you can do so here: