The Selfies - questions for 2024 children's book winners Jill Michelle Smith and Jennifer Watson

"We are passionate about promoting a love and care for our natural world, as we explore the Extraordinary Extinct creatures of the past"

Mother-and-daughter team Jill Michelle Smith and Jennifer Watson were the winners of the children's category at the Selfies Awards 2024 with Extraordinary Extinct Prehistoric Minibeasts: A First Guide to Fossils. Together they run micro-publisher Dodo and Dinosaur, producing books about natural history. In 2022 they were shortlisted for the Selfies with their first book, An A-Z of Extraordinary Extinct Creatures.

What inspired you to start working together on your series of natural history books?

We're a mother (Jill) and daughter (Jennifer) team. We began working together during the first lockdown when my little boy was seven months old and I (Jennifer) was already on maternity leave from the National Trust, where I worked in marketing and design, including family activities and conservation trails. Jill has a background in graphics and illustration, and would sell her paintings of Norfolk wildlife locally.

When we started to see my son's love of dinosaurs and the natural world develop from a very young age, it sparked us to design a new collection together. We'd always loved nature and natural history as a family, and I have very fond memories of the first time my parents took me and my sister to the Natural History Museum, London. When I was six I always said I wanted to be a palaeontologist; however, my love of art and design was always my strong point as I got older. Mum and I were in each other's bubble during the pandemic and it gave us an opportunity to collaborate properly and begin to create a series of Extraordinary Extinct designs and products. Many of the weird and wonderful creatures we researched hadn't before been made accessible to children and we found there was a whole new side to the topic of dinosaurs and prehistoric life that we could unearth for little explorers, which soon became our unique selling point.

Once Jill had illustrated our first few designs, she pointed out that we could have a creature for every letter of the alphabet, and this was when our first children's picture book, An A-Z of Extraordinary Extinct Creatures, took shape. We were really taken aback by the positive response our first book received from schools, museums and families, and we were shortlisted for the Selfies Book Awards in 2022. This recognition gave us the momentum (and confidence) to go on to produce more books, and we were lucky enough to collaborate with the world famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs charity in 2023 to publish our second book, Extraordinary Extinct Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. We are very proud to have brought all 14 of the park's remaining species to life for young readers for the first time, which were originally built as life-sized sculptures in 1854 and show how the Victorians thought prehistoric life would have looked. Today, the sculptures are protected as Grade I listed structures. 

My little boy is now nearly five and my little girl is three. Both love dinosaurs and looking for fossils, but we found there weren't really any books about fossil hunting for preschool and primary aged beginners that are accessible for children of all abilities (and their families), so we simultaneously worked on our new fossil guide Extraordinary Extinct Prehistoric Minibeasts: A First Guide to Fossils alongside Extraordinary Extinct Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, which we then published in October 2023. Since its release, the book has been a number one Amazon best seller in the category of 'Rocks, Minerals and Fossils', and has also managed to reach number two in 'Dinosaurs', which is a hotly contested category. I hope it is a testament to the power of small presses and the new ideas they can bring to the table, which may not have been given a look in with a large publisher!

Can you tell us about your writing process and how you work together?

We research weird and wonderful creatures that we think will be fascinating to children and then Jill illustrates them, giving them character while maintaining a level of accuracy (to the most recent scientific description available). Using the information we have compiled, we then write fun and engaging rhymes for each species, including as many facts as we can, and then I design the book, format the text, edit the artwork and create the final layout and finishings.

What do you enjoy about writing for children?

We love exploring natural history - the wonders of nature will never cease to amaze us and we always learn so much in the process of creating our books. We feel that if the topic is interesting to us and that we've learned something ourselves, there will be a lot of fresh and exciting information for children (and their families) to discover too. I think our inquisitiveness ensures that content is easy to understand and accessible for a wide spectrum of learners. Please see our BBC Radio Norfolk interview, for a bit more about this!

Are there any children's authors or illustrators who have particularly inspired you?

Jill dreamed of being a children's illustrator when she was at school. From Enid Blyton when she was very young, to reading Shirley Hughes, Jane Hissey, Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen to my sister and me when we were children, we have always loved classic illustration. As a left-handed painter, Jill looked for a medium that worked for her and didn't smudge, and in the process she developed a unique pen and watercolour style, which is distinctive yet classic and captures both children's imagination and the true essence of the animal's shape and movement! 

What drew you towards self-publishing?

There seems to be a lot of stigma attached to the term 'self-publishing', as it can often be seen as amateur, but we are both design professionals. I produced an array of printed materials in my previous roles before starting our own small business, so I felt confident that we could produce books that could sit alongside big brands and not look out of place, but also show some individuality. Part of the reason I wanted to start our own small press was for the full creative control you can have over your projects - you're not limited to what you can design or achieve. Whilst of course we do not have the budget to produce huge print-runs like a large publisher, we are proud to be designing, printing and publishing books sustainably within the UK that are full of engaging information and colourful illustrations (with a lot of personality), which are also eco-friendly. All our carbon emissions are offset in association with the World Land Trust, and we are passionate about promoting a love and care for our natural world, as we explore the Extraordinary Extinct creatures of the past.

As an indie author and illustrator team, how do you find balancing marketing and publicity with writing?

It's a juggling act! Since officially launching our small press in 2021, it's always been tricky balancing work around my two small children. Between my sister and me, mum has four small grandchildren aged five, four, three and two, so we often have quite a busy schedule. It's challenging, but also great, as all our books and supplementary products are tried and tested as we create them! I'm responsible for all our sales, marketing and general back office work. I design our website, produce advertising and email campaigns, update our social media channels and also work directly with retailers. We are purely a team of two and we do everything in house, which often feels like an impossible mountain to climb. We also design, produce and package all our supplementary accessories ourselves, such as t-shirts, rucksacks, pencil cases, prints, clocks and greetings cards too. We were absolutely thrilled to have won the Selfies Book Awards 2024 and we hope to now outsource some of our distribution to reach larger retailers and reduce our workload, so we can focus on new projects!

What have you found to be the most effective publicity and marketing tools for independent authors?

We have found that providing in-person activity workshops, family trails, book readings and more has been incredibly important in building our client base. It gives us an opportunity to interact with families and share with them what we do, and from there it helps generate more of a buzz around social media and our website and drives traffic. A lot of businesses are finding a decrease in engagement through classic tools such as social media campaigns and SEO optimisation. They're also not as far-reaching as they used to be and so aren't enough to generate business on their own, so we're definitely trying to strike a balance between digital and organic marketing. This method encourages more families to connect with us and become long-term supporters, and also helps to inspire little explorers to get outside and discover something new!

Can you tell us about any projects you're working on at the moment?

We have quite a lot of projects on the go. This year we've been commissioned by Norfolk County Council to create a Prehistoric Quest, which involves a series of 15 family trails across the county, to help promote sustainable travel and eco-friendly living, whilst offering families fun and free activities to take part in over the school holidays. dodoanddinosaur.com/prehistoric-quest

We're also busy with a lot more school, library and museum visits than ever before, as well as festival appearances, such as at Bear Grylls' Gone Wild Festival, where we will be hosting a fossil trail for families to enjoy! 

Back in the studio our work continues and we are looking to produce some new activity books for children to complement our main titles, as well as upgrade our school learning packs and free digital resources. Then in 2025 we will look to publish our next book, which we have lots of ideas for, but nothing is quite set in stone yet - apart from the fossils! 

How did you find attending the London Book Fair?

We really enjoyed the London Book Fair this year. I was also shortlisted for the Trailblazer Awards, so it was a great opportunity to network and reach out to other businesses. There is a really lovely growing community of Selfies Awards alumni too and a lot of us keep in touch and support each other on social media.

Original article: www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/free-article/the-selfies--questions-for-2024-childrens-book-winners-jill-michelle-smith-and-jennifer-watson/