Author: edboxall

I am a printmaker, illustrator, writer, storyteller and artist-educator based in the coastal town of Hastings, England. I have my own 'Pearbox Press' through which I publish my own richly visual story books and poems.

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Self Publish 2:Control

I’ve done good and bad books. I don’t see much relation between whether they were with publishers or not. My most muddled and typo-filled book was with a publisher. Another picture book with a big publisher had all the fun over-edited out of it. I read the book to a class of four year olds. A boy at the back piped up “that wasn’t as good as the other one”. He was right.

And I have made terrible mistakes self-publishing. But when I’ve got the first print run back from the printers and realised there’s something horribly wrong, I’ve just stuck the books in recycling, learnt from mistakes and moved onto the next thing.

What matters is making the book I want to make. At the end of the process I want to hold a book in my hand that I love. It doesn’t matter what route I take to get there, as long as I get there.

And I’d much rather make a book I love for a small audience, than a book I don’t love for a big audience.

On balance, the pleasure of controlling the process- which includes having the freedom to resolve or accept inevitable mistakes how I want- outweighs the advantages of working with a publisher.

From my book 'My Walk to School Friends'

Categories
children childrens illustration pets Poetry

Perfect Christmas Present for Cat Lovers

My Walk to School Friends by Ed Boxall

When my son was small, I used to walk him to school. The journey always took longer than it should have. Partly, this was because he loved collecting every shiny scrap of metal, thingamajig and whatchamacallit he spotted on the ground. Mostly, though, it was because of the cats.

We had to say hello to every one of them. They all knew him. Some dozed on walls or bins; others stared from windows or padded gracefully towards us, tails swishing behind them. And, of course, there were occasionally cats we knew we really shouldn’t go near unless we wanted a scratch.

Bringing up children can often be hard. But even on the hardest days, though, my children showed me something I would have otherwise missed- like the cats you meet in my book, who I met because my son introduced me to them on our daily walks.

I have brought imagination and artistic licence to that lovely daily ritual. Believe it or not, we never met a cat who claimed to have been a pirate and fought a shark, or one who believed she was the Queen. Still, I think every cat has a touch of royalty. Like Belinda in my book, they often seem to gaze down on us lowly humans from above. Beowolf was completely real though- nothing made up about him:

Beowolf, Peel Street, Number 38,

Like a big grey cloud with a squirrel’s tail

When I stroke his tummy, he thunderously purrs,

But he’s a tiny skinny cat under all that fur.

My Walk to School Friends is, of course, a book about cats: a charming rhyming story filled with funny illustrations and details to revisit again and again. It is also about a child who notices the wonder in the world around him and is open to making friends with it, which I think is a good way to approach life!

My Walk to School Friends can be purchased from my website if you’d like a special signed and dedicated copy:

Children who love cats will love it…by I think all those grown ups who love cats will enjoy it too.

Find it in my bookshop!