John Condon

Well, I used to want to be a filmmaker, and went to great lengths to pursue that goal. I even set up a filmmaker’s group, so that I could mix with likeminded people and have a readily available pool of cast and crew members at all times. At one stage the group had grown to 2,500 members, which meant I spent a lot of my time administrating the website and organising events for the members. I didn’t enjoy that and eventually I quit. But before that happened, I noticed two things. The first was that I hadn’t actually directed a film in years, and it didn’t bother me. The second was that I had spent what little creative time I had writing screenplays for films that I wasn’t making. I realised that this was actually where my creative passion lay. Eventually, this led me to writing for children, and I never looked back.

That’s a tricky question. It’s been daunting from day 1 and that hasn’t really changed. From the outset I didn’t just want to be published, I wanted to be published regularly. I wanted this to be a career. With that being said, I think the point I realised just how difficult it would be was some time after I had sold my first two books (to two different publishers), whilst un-agented. Even then I was aware how difficult it is to sell a picture book text, so I was very proud of that achievement. However, it would be almost 5 years before I sold another one. I quite quickly discovered that just because a publisher buys one of your books and is very keen to work with you again, they won’t accept your next book just because it’s available. Around that time too I was meeting published authors and would ask them how many books they had in the works (sold but yet to be published) and they would more often than not say (with humility) a dozen or so. That was both inspiring and deflating in equal measure. I hoped that it was because they were agented, and the was the missing piece to my puzzle but even after getting an agent, it was still difficult to get any traction. It took a year for my excellent and highly regarded agent to get a two-book deal for me and that was with a totally new publisher. Admittedly, I had a full-time job for much of that period, so I wasn’t writing as many stories as I would have liked but even so, I realised there was no final hurdle to jump over in order to finally ‘make it big. This would be a never-ending race. I accept that though and I love the journey none the less.

I didn’t read many picture books as a child. I don’t think I started reading until I discovered the Asterix books in my school library. I devoured them quite quickly and moved on to Tin Tin, which I also enjoyed. When I really fell in love with books though was after reading the first of the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston. I loved the immersive nature of them and felt like I was the hero living in the world of the book. It blew my mind. I hunted more of them down and found that my local branch of WH Smith sold them. Whenever I had some money, I would save it up until I could afford the next book in the series. Though I never quite managed to get them all I had about 30 at one point. As much as I loved those books at the time, I certainly wouldn’t say any of them were my favourite children’s book as an adult. I don’t think I have an all-time favourite, as it’s always one of the recent batch I’ve been reading.

Try to know your craft as best you can before you approach agents or publishers. They are all ridiculously busy at the moment, so don’t give them reasons to reject your stories. Ensure that they are the best they can be before sending them out. That might mean hiring a private editor to work them through with you (it’s not cheating to do that) but it costs money, which you may not have. If you can afford to do one thing, I would highly recommend joining SCBWI, as they not only offer a community of like-minded creatives for you to meet and make friends with, they also have writing competitions, workshops, a conference, and critique groups looking for new members. As soon as you have signed up, ask about joining one of those critique groups. Even if you don’t join SCBWI you should look for a critique group. The rigour of reading and critiquing other stories and having yours regularly critiqued is vital for improving your craft.

Once you have a handful of stories you are really proud of, then consider approaching an agent or a publisher but do your homework on them. Make sure they represent authors similar to you or publish books similar to yours.

If, like me, you want to be published multiple times, or perhaps want to build a career then the last bit of advice I’ll give is to persevere. You may be snapped up straight away and have no problem selling your next story, and then the next but if that isn’t the case, don’t despair. The journey to success doesn’t end once you have signed for your dream agent or signed a contract with your dream publisher. That agent then has to be able to sell your future stories and that publisher needs to feel there is a market for them. Neither of which is guaranteed.

I could have given up many times over the past 10 years of my journey, but that perseverance has kept me going. As has the support of the many friends I have made in that time. Friends I met through SCBWI. Friends in the critique group I’m a part of. Friends who I have made online in social network writing communities. These are people who totally understand the journey you are on because they are too. They’ll cheer your successes and pick you up when you are down. So go out and find your team because they will be your biggest supporters and your biggest champions.

Like anyone else that does this I just do the best as I can and try not to be too hard on myself if I have a quiet writing week. As I mentioned above, I used to have a full-time job, my family, and the film group to keep me very busy, so finding time to write was difficult. Now that I no longer have the film group to contend with and I have dropped days at work, I can dedicate three days a week to my writing (well, three half days, as I do the school runs, dinner, bath, and bedtime). That time has come at a cost, as I’ve lost more than half of my previous wage, but thankfully I have a supportive family and the determination to keep marching onwards.