By Roseleigh Priest
When we think about the Australian children’s publishing industry, Melbourne and Sydney tend to take the limelight in terms of well-known houses: Allen and Unwin, Penguin Random House, and Scribe, to name a few. But all across Australia, largely out of sight, there are thriving creative networks of regional authors, illustrators and small publishers producing great books in small teams with fewer resources. While small in size, they are big in impact! Last year I started working as a research assistant for a research group, Community Publishing in Regional Australia (CPRA), and what I found while investigating these small regional publishers has changed my view of Australian book publishing. Here’s what I learned …
It’s all happening in Armidale
CPRA has been investigating regional publishing since 2023 by visiting towns, talking to authors and analysing eleven years of data collected from the AustLit database. The Community Publishing in Regional Australia group want to put together a more complete picture of Australia’s literary landscape and bring light to regional creatives so they can receive credit for their incredible work and cultural impact.
Armidale is a hot spot for regional publishing in NSW and a big producer of children’s books in particular. Our data found that Armidale is producing an impressive number of books for its size, a definite star in the state’s regional publishing scene. I think this can be partially credited to the flourishing creative network present there, including some standout small publishers with terrific titles and burgeoning lists that get stronger with each year.
Little Pink Dog Books: looking out for the new kids
One of those publishers is Little Pink Dog Books, a leading member of Armidale’s creative network. Kathy and Peter Creamer were already well-seasoned participants in children’s book publishing—the couple having been active in the industry since 1996—when they decided to start Little Pink Dog Books in 2016.
The Creamers wanted to provide opportunities for new and emerging talents, and many skilled authors and illustrators have made their debuts with Little Pink Dog Books over the years. They have a catalogue of over 50 picture books, their titles primarily inspired by topics of mental health, animal conservation, family and humour—blending education and entertainment for Australia’s young readers.
The press often pairs established authors and illustrators with less experienced talents. An example is its very first publication in 2017, The World’s Worst Pirate, written by Michelle Worthington and illustrated by Katrin Dreiling. Worthington was an established author with numerous titles under her belt, but it was Dreiling’s first traditionally published book. The match proved a success, and the press has since published two more works by Worthington and Dreiling—including Johnny’s Beard in 2018, which was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year in 2019.
Fostering the talents of emerging creatives is one way that regional creative networks enrich Australian publishing as a whole, bringing in new voices that may have otherwise been lost in the cacophony of the big urban hubs.
Christmas Press: birds of a feather flock together
Another star in the constellation of Armidale’s creative network is Christmas Press, a small publisher with big ideas. Founded in early 2013 by prolific author Sophie Masson—alongside David Allan, Beattie Alvarez and Fiona McDonald—the press was inspired by a childhood nostalgia for beautifully illustrated books of classic tales ‘that made you feel like every day was Christmas.’ Masson realised these beloved books were fading from the Australian market and decided to do something about it. Christmas Press publishes chapter books, collections of traditional tales, junior fiction and illustrated anthologies. In 2016 the press expanded, launching two imprints. Eagle Books is geared towards middle grade and YA readers, specialising in adventure novels. Second Look Publishing provides print on demand editions of out of print Australian children’s books, giving a new life to old favourites. This ability to target specific markets is the strength of the press.
Masson herself is very active in Armidale’s creative network. Alongside her work with Christmas Press, she is the current Chair of the New England Writers’ Centre (NEWC), a regional not-for-profit dedicated to providing education, resources and publishing opportunities to local creatives. Masson has also worked with the University of New England, Armidale’s local university, and in an interview with them she shared how important living in Armidale has been to her creative work, saying ‘the city has such a vibrant cultural life, with so many people engaged in the arts’.
Being surrounded by like-minded people willing to support each other makes all the difference to regional creatives trying to find their footing in an often exclusive and complicated industry. Commiserating losses, celebrating victories—everything is easier when you don’t have to do it alone.
Teamwork makes the dream work
A creative network is more than people working in the same area—a strong network is interconnected. People working collaboratively. This can be seen in the way Little Pink Dog Books and Christmas Press came together in 2020 to form the United Publishers of Armidale (UPA). A COVID project, Masson has said that UPA was built on the idea that ‘in these difficult times, it makes sense for publishers, especially small, regionally-based publishers like us, to pool our efforts and resources in order to promote and showcase our books and help to support our creator communities’.
With the support of their many authors and illustrators, UPA created free interactive downloadable resources, including puzzles, mazes, colouring pages and video presentations. This both promoted the work of their creatives and gave teachers and families resources to keep up with children’s literacy education during lockdowns. This sort of place-orientated community project is an example of the cultural value regional creatives bring to the table.
UPA also launched an imprint, UPA Books, and published Inside Story: the wonderful world of writing, illustrating and publishing children’s books, a resource book for ‘aspiring writers, illustrators, editors and designers’ that showcases the wonderful world of Australian children’s books. The book was commissioned by the NEWC and made possible by a grant from Create NSW and a successful crowdfunding effort.
The book was a large joint effort to make children’s book publishing more accessible to regional creatives. There’s a lesson to be learned in that collaboration: trying to publish a book can feel isolating, especially for aspiring talents, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you’re trying to do it all alone. Sometimes it takes a village to publish a book—and there’s no shame in that.
A bright future for regional book publishing
Regional small publishers may not be as visible or financially lucrative as their urban counterparts, but the work they do is culturally worth its weight in gold—the Australian literary landscape would be a poorer place without them.
Community Publishing in Regional Australia has been privileged to get a close look into the publishing activity of regional Australia, and one of our aims is to create a toolkit to further empower that activity, especially around the use of digital technologies to publish and distribute books. New technology like print on demand services is rapidly making publishing more accessible to regional communities and broadening the possibilities of what the Australian publishing industry can be.
The value of supportive regional creative networks like Armidale’s cannot be understated, and there’s a lot of important work to be done to encourage the growth of creative networks in regional Australia. But I have hope for a future where regional publishing grows into legitimate competition for the big shots in Melbourne and Sydney, and finds its own spotlight to shine in.
When it comes time to pick out your next read, try looking for a regionally published title. You might be surprised by what you find.
If you are interested in learning more about our project, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky and Substack.
Roseleigh Priest is an alumnus of the University of Queensland, where she received her Bachelor of Arts and Graduate Certificate in Writing, Editing, and Publishing. She is currently working as a research assistant for the Community Publishing in Regional Australia research group.
Cover photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash License.
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