Eileen O'Hely

Children’s Author

Aussie STEM Women coming soon…

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Back in 2019 I had what I thought was a winning idea for a book. I would single-handedly solve the gender imbalance in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths workforces by writing a book for Australian girls about Australian girls who grew up to achieve amazing success in STEM fields.

I interviewed 37 women working in various STEM areas, and they all thought it was a great idea too. They very generously gave of their time and personal information in the hope that young high school/upper primary school girls would be inspired to pursue a career in STEM if that is where their aptitudes and interests lie.

Some publishers thought it was a good idea too, but it was too academic for the trade children’s publishers and not the right demographic for the marketers at the academic publishers.

Not being one to give up – especially when so many brilliant women had been so generous in sharing their stories – I then thought about running the articles as a serial in a magazine for girls. The problem with girls’ (and, IMHO, women’s!) magazines is that most focus on fashion or celebrities, and my articles just would not fit, so I didn’t even bother pitching to them.

But then I discovered Poppy for Real (link to Poppy for real magazine). Poppy for Real is issued monthly, has no advertising and contains serialised stories, animal facts, art and craft projects and at least two articles on female role models. I thought my articles would slot in nicely. And happily the editor did too.

Dawnie Rasmussen, said editor, has been very helpful, introducing me to the concept of readability indices. If you don’t know what these are, they are ways to calculate the reading age of your audience based on factors like syllable count and sentence length. The sample article I sent through was pitched perfectly for Year 8’s (my original target audience), but a little too high for actual 8-year-olds. Luckily (or dare I say skilfully?) my redraft was just right for Poppy for Real’s readership, so I will go full steam ahead with the other 36.

(The readability index calculation for this post suggests it’s pitched at a Year 10 level.)

The Coolest Day Job

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Nick Manning in action during his successful Guinness World Record attempt

If you live in a house with at least one bookshelf, some of the books on that shelf are most likely written by famous authors. Although you may not know what those authors look like, you recognise their names. Some authors are a step higher on the fame ladder, with recognisable faces. And some are so successful that their wealth rivals that of the Royal Family!

As an author several rungs down the ladder, I have only been recognised by name once, when a checkout worker noticed the name on my credit card matched the name of the author of her brother’s favourite book. Even though they are called royalties, the payments I have received for my book sales fall way below what the lowliest member of the aristocracy would pay for a pair of shoes. So like many authors and creative professionals in other fields, I also have a day job. I’ve mentioned this before, so today let’s chat about the weirdest author day job I’ve stumbled across yet: Guinness World Record Holder.

Technically, being a Guinness World Record Holder isn’t a job, as it’s not necessarily a paid gig. It could be described as a hobby, a passion, or a seriously misguided use of time. However, I am proud to say that a writer friend of mine, Nick Manning, trained very hard for over six months and is now the proud holder of not one but two world records!

I met Nick way back last decade when we and fellow writer friend and all-round good guy Lee McGowan were selected to write some locative fiction stories for Story City. Locative fiction is a story you read on a mobile device in the place where it happens. I had an excellent day walking around with Nick, Lee and Emily Craven – the brains behind the operation – checking out the three locations our stories would be set in. At that time I had no idea Nick would become a multiple world record holder.

So what are the world records that Nick broke?

Fastest time to put on 10 pairs of undies

Putting on the most pairs of undies in 30 seconds

It’s something we all do every day, just not as fast or as often as Nick.

Needless to say, the time Nick saves getting dressed in the morning is put towards his latest writing project.

Introducing Aisling and Amelia

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It’s been several years in the making, but Aisling and Amelia is due for release soon! (Please note: in the publishing world “soon” can mean several months…)

Aisling loves chocolate, ladybirds, and hopscotch, but her favourite thing of all is ballet. When Miss Karissa invites Aisling to perform a duet with Amelia, Aisling is unsure. Can two very different girls become friends?

The idea for this story was suggested by my daughter’s ballet teacher when my daughter was a tiny and forgetful dance student who would often leave a shoe behind at class. When I emailed the ballet teacher after my daughter came home with only one shoe for the third week in a row, the ballet teacher replied; “Is this the topic of your next book? I think so!”

The idea evolved (as ideas do) and rather than being a story about a forgetful ballerina or the adventures of a cunning shoe that escapes at the end of every dance class, the story came to include a dancer who was born without a foot.

My daughter’s teacher was kind enough to take the time to explain ballet terms to me and to choreograph some dance moves for an able-bodied girl and a girl with a limb difference, so I have obviously named the character of the dance teacher after her. Thank you Miss Karissa!

Big thanks also to the very talented and obliging Chloe Finnis for her beautiful watercolour illustrations, and to the Hawkeye team for giving me such agency with the book. Can’t wait to get a copy!

If you’d like a copy of your own, you can pre-order one now from Hawkeye Books.

Australian Reading Hour

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Images borrowed from australiareads.org.au

(This post is a bit late because I’ve been busy reading!)

There are many special “days” in March: International Women’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Harmony Day and many cultural festivals. Even though it only technically goes for 1/24th of the day, Australian Reading Hour on March 9 is a national day dedicated to sharing the joys of books, reading and stories.

I spend at least an hour every day reading. There’s a supply of books on my bedside table that changes constantly. I get through the fiction titles fairly quickly, dipping into the non-fiction books when I’m in the mood.

Australian Reading Hour was designed to share stories, but did you know that every time you read a book you are doing just that? As you read, the author is sharing their story with you. They might be sharing the story from miles away or even across the sea. They are always sharing their story through time, because even with a book that is newly published, the author finished writing the story many months ago. Many books that you read may have been written last century – or in the case of fairy tales, first told hundreds of years ago.

When you are reading, remember to always have good lighting (reading outside in the shade is ideal!) and to take breaks every so often to give your eyes a rest from focusing up close for long amounts of time.

Spaced Out

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Galaxy in space textured background

There are some authors out there who are so good they only do authoring stuff – which isn’t just writing, by the way, but visiting their adoring public at schools, libraries and bookshops (fun – although some authors’ worst nightmare!), dealing with rejection letters (not so much fun and every author’s worst nightmare), or employing interns to answer their fan mail for them.

Unfortunately I’m not one of those authors and I have a day job which just happens to be the exact opposite to authoring. Instead of sitting in front of a keyboard or snuggled up in a comfy chair by myself with an exercise book for company, I stand in a room full of people, in the dark, and tell them all about space.

I show them pictures of space, too.

And videos.

It’s quite fun!

A lot’s been happening in space lately. Just this week alone three reasonably sized asteroids cruised close by our planet, Jupiter and Venus had a conjunction (where they look really close together in the sky even though they’re hundreds of millions of kilometres away from each other), and results from last year’s resoundingly successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test were published in an important science journal.

In fact, I’m feeling so inspired by all this space stuff, I’ve had a really good idea for a book. I’d better get started on it straight away.

Watch this (pardon the pun) space…

3… 2… 1… Launch!

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PEP 2 launch

We have lift off!

Last time I wrote I was stuck on the printing and distributing part of the self-publishing process. I’ve got the printing part done, but I’m still working on the distribution part. So what I have learned so far…

Printing is expensive, especially in small quantities. Despite not having cut-throat pricing, some printing companies are quite competitive in other aspects of their business. My advice is to shop around and to go with what works best for you (sage advice that should be applied to every aspect of life!).

I’ve learned all sorts of print jargon, such as ‘bleed’ (making sure your pictures, including your cover, are actually bigger than the page size so if the alignment isn’t quite right there won’t be a small white line around the edge), ‘stock’ is another word for paper (no surprise to my scrapbooking friends) and paper is quantified by gsm (grams per square metre).

I’ve learned how to format a book in Microsoft Word. This took me a long time, but when one company offered to charge me $3 per page for the privilege of doing it (which adds up quite quickly for a 300+ page book!) I decided it would be a better investment of my time and money to learn how to do it myself.

I’ve learned that B-format is not a standard measure of the size of a book and you need to specify the height and width in millimetres.

The saddest thing I’ve learned is that if you want a review in Books + Publishing, the industry magazine, you have to send in a copy of your book 3 months in advance of publication date. Missed that boat…

As far as distribution goes, rather than marketing to bookshops, I’ve been focusing on getting my books into libraries. With over 1500 public library branches in Australia and over 7000 primary school libraries (which is great news if you’re a children’s author), there’s a good chance your first print run will more than sell out to this customer base alone!

Regarding bookshops, I’ve only contacted a couple of the big chains, but neither of them have deigned to call me back. I’ll pursue this at a later date. In the meantime, the Brisbane children’s specialist bookshop, Where the Wild Things Are, was kind enough to host my book launch yesterday. I read a few passages from my book, and the audience laughed at the appropriate bits (phew!), then I gave them a couple of exercises to do, so they could experience what it’s like to be a trainee PEP Squad agent.

If this sounds like fun, then come along again on September 29 as I’ll be doing a few more secret code activities at a day camp, and at selected Brisbane City Council libraries during the summer holidays.