Northern Highlight - Alan Windram

NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT

ALAN WINDRAM

Tell us about Little Door Books and Little Door Debuts.

Little Door Books was set up in 2016 by myself and my wife Susan. Since inception, we have so far published eighteen high-quality picture books, each with an audiobook and specially-written songs. While I look after the day to-day running of LDB, Susan is involved in the planning, copy editing, author/illustrator liaison and has a full-time job as the editor of the Oban Times newspaper. While working in children’s theatre, I recognised the key part that music plays in engaging children, leading us to produce an audiobook and original songs for each of our titles. Susan and I decided early on that we wanted to champion the work of new, exciting and undiscovered illustrating talent, so a key feature of our list is partnering named authors with emerging illustrators. LDB works hard to find the right author/illustrator pairing, and actively encourages more collaboration between the author and illustrator.

A key element of our long-term strategy for Little Door Books is to raise the public and industry awareness of the wonderfully talented unsung illustrators out there. We continue to partner new illustrators with known authors, but because we are always meeting so many fabulously talented creatives, we decided to take things a step further. In early 2019 we set up a new imprint, Little Door Debuts, where LDB actively champions and publishes debut picture books, by exciting, new, creative, illustrating talent. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, and with the assistance of some Creative Scotland funding, we published our first LDD in 2019, written and illustrated by Will Hughes. 2020 saw us publishing two more Little Door Debuts – Esther Kent and Corrina Campbell.

Written and illustrated by Esther Kent, published by Little Door Books 

Written and illustrated by Corrina Campbell, published by Little Door Books

 How has the picture book offering developed at Little Door Books over the years, and what have been your highlights?

Although based in Scotland, we see ourselves very much as an International publisher. Our titles are fabulous stories with brilliant illustrations and that is what drives us. There is always a wonderful creative spark that fires us when we get a fabulous text and have the privilege of finding an illustrator who is the perfect partner to bring the story alive.

A huge highlight for us over the past few years has been to work with some of the UK’s bestselling and award-winning authors including Vivian French, Barry Hutchison, Sara Sheridan, Emily Dodd, Pippa Goodhart, Chae Strathie and Jonathan Meres. It has also been a joy to pair them up with wonderful new and upcoming illustrators.

Another highlight - for me as an author, and us as a small indie publisher - was winning the 2019 Bookbug Picture Book Prize with my robot picture book, One Button Benny. This award, along with jointly winning the Saltire Emerging Publisher of the Year in 2019 and being on the British Book Awards Scottish regional shortlist for 2020, have certainly been right up there for us and our profile.

Written by Alan Windram, illustrated by Chloe Holwill-Hunter, published by Little Door Books

Where are you based and what are the advantages if being based in Scotland?

 We are based in the Highlands of Scotland near Oban and are at present running our International publishing house from a static caravan while we tackle the ups and downs of Covid, trying to build a house :0)

A massive advantage for inspiration and mental health is just being able to look out of the window at such amazing scenery.

With a reasonable internet connection and regular Zoom meetings it’s easy to stay connected to the wider publishing community.

Little Door Books 2020 titles 

 What events/new projects do you have coming up?

As an author I have been taking part in quite a few online and virtual events. It’s not ideal for interaction with the picture book age audience but it’s a connection that I am keen to continue.

We are very excited about our 2021 list with our first chapter book coming out, a board book, and picture books by multi award-winning author Chae Strathie and bestselling author Jonathan Meres paired up with fantastic new illustrators Francis Martin and Anders Frang. To top it all off, we also have a brand new Little Door Debut coming out in the summer by fabulous illustrator Madeline Pinkerton.

What are your favourite children's book set in Scotland?

To be honest I don’t really have a favourite children’s book set in Scotland – maybe it’s out there and someone needs to write it for us. Although I do know that the fab folks at Cranachan Publishing have some wonderful titles, so I will have to check them out.

If you could be transported to anywhere in Scotland right now, where would it be?

The island of Iona - peace, tranquillity, blue sea, beautiful white sandy beaches and no mobile signal.

What would you like to see from children's publishing in Scotland?

An openness to encouraging and developing the new and exciting individuals that are out there. Some funding for the numerous small indie publishers and booksellers trying to give voice to original stories and talented artists.

We would love to see book festivals getting behind their homegrown talent and highlighting authors, illustrators and publishers who are striving to promote the Scottish creatives they are passionate about.

 

You can find Alan on Twitter & Instagram, and find out more about Little Door Books here: http://littledoorbooks.co.uk/