Words and Pictures with Paddy Donnelly

Why the energy you put into promotion matters, how he utilised the power of mind maps to change his career and what surprised him most about the children's industry

This week we’re joined by author/illustrator Paddy Donnelly. We discussed how he transitioned from being a digital designer to a bestselling children’s book creator.

He also told us how he uses mind maps to generate ideas, shared what initially surprised him most about the children’s publishing industry and gave us an insight into how he promotes his books too.

Paddy Donnelly is a bestselling, award winning author and illustrator from Ireland who now lives in Belgium. He has published 25 picture books, including 'The Vanishing Lake', 'Ava and the Acorn', 'Wolves In Helicopters' and 'Here Be Dragons'.

'The Golden Hare', was awarded the Children's Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2024, while his other book 'Fox & Son Tailers' was chosen as one of the official books for World Book Day 2025.

You can watch our full conversation with Paddy here:

A huge thank you to Paddy for taking the time to chat to us. You can find out more about him and his work on his website or instagram.

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• We’ll share everything we know about making books and how the industry works in a new post exclusively for paid subscribers each Monday.

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