On Thursday 9th November the latest in the #Properbook series of professional development events for children’s writers and illustrators took place. These events are run by Children’s Books Ireland and this one was in association with Dublin Book Festival and dlr Libraries. It took place in the lovely dlr Lexicon in Dún Laoghaire. It was programmed by myself, Sarah Webb.
Here is are some notes from the evening. Thank you to all the speakers for taking part and to the audience who came along on the night.
On the first panel Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and Mary Murphy spoke about their experiences of sustaining a career as a children’s writer and illustrator.
They shared some figures about children’s authors’ and illustrators’ earnings.
£7k is the average advance payment for a picturebook in the UK at present (this can vary a lot)
The publishing panel talked more about advances, see below. Here are most of Mary’s books - she’s written and/or illustrated a lot of books!
And here are Marie-Louise’s - again there are a lot!
Here are some slides that Mary shared - thank you, Mary!
Next up was the publishing panel, brilliantly chaired by Aoife Murray from Children’s Books Ireland.
The publishers taking part were Ivan O’Brien from The O’Brien Press, Matthew Parkinson-Bennett from Little Island Books and Róisín Adams from Futa Fata.
Here is some of the information shared by this panel in note form. Hope it’s useful!
The O’Brien Press is always looking for new children’s books, inc. from debut writers. Children’s books are around 50% of The O’Brien Press’ list and are very important to the publishing house. In 2023 they published 33 new children’s books (some are new editions). They publish around 10 picturebooks a year and are pretty much full up unti 2025 (but will squeeze in any brilliant books they are offered).
Little Island are looking for ‘the best books that we love the most’. They don’t chase trends they like to change the market rather than follow it. They have been active in seeking out diverse voices.
Futa Fata commission a lot of their books and love working with new writers and illustrators. They are very keen on nurturing new talent in the Irish language world and are esp. looking for short novels for the 5 to 7 age group. They would love to find an Irish language author/illustrator but are open to working with illustrators who do no speak Irish (yet).
You do not need an agent to subit to all three of these publishers. For submission guidelines see here:
Little Island (closed at present but will open again soon)
Advances and Royalties
Little Island pay an average advance of e1.5k to their author for a book. (It’s an advance against your royalties - so once it’s paid off then you start earning royalties.)
They like to sell foreign language rights where they can.
Futa Fata pay around e1k advance to writers per book (depending on the length of the book). They pay e4k to e7k to illustrators for a picturebook, depending on the amount of illustration work needed and the length of the book.
O’Brien Press - they pay a higher advance for a higher print run
They have sold rights for Fox and Son Tailers by Paddy Donnelly to around 7 or 8 different foreign publishers. They paid out e300,000 in royalties in 2022.
Print Runs
O’Brien - they printed 26k of last year’s World Book Day book. The lowest print run they would do is around 3k copies.
Little Island printed 5k of their new book, Black and Irish. And have just ordered another 3k print run.
Futa Fata print runs are smaller - from 1k to 2k.
All three publishers are devoted to author care and to looking after their authors and illustrators. I’ve published with both O’Brien and Little Island and I can say with confidence that this is 100% the case.
I have published 9 books with O’Brien and I have 2 more coming in 2024. I really enjoy working with them. My latest book, I am the Wind: Irish Poems for Children Everywhere (with Lucinda Jacob and Ashwin Chacko) was published by Little Island and I’ve really enjoyed working with them too.
it was a really interested evening and I learned lots of new information, especially about Irish language publishing. Thank you again to all the speakers and to Children’s Books Ireland, Dublin Book Festival and dlr Libraries.
Good luck with your writing journey!
My latest book - with Lucinda Jacob and Ashwin Chacko