The Quest for a Publisher

By Chris Livemore. The plan started off as simple as simple could be. Write the books. Build the community. Send the manuscripts to publishers. Get the deal. Watch Jack take his place on bookshop shelves alongside children who will love him. Help get more dads reading to their children at bedtime. Sounds simply. Right? Then an idea began to form. I would tart writing some blogs, build some interesting content to show that The Good Knight website was actually more than just ab

As someone who was born in the early 1980s I never imagined that I would have to adapt so quickly to a technology, or even be replaced by one. A vast majority of my working career involved writing and winning funding bids for sustainability projects. And then I stopped winning as many bids, I couldn't work out why, I questioned my ability, my skills, my knowledge, my sanity and then my ability again.

When I launched The Good Knight blog, I had a plan. The plan was this: write honestly about the journey to get five picture books published. Share what it's like to write something you believe in and then spend months trying to persuade people in offices to agree with you. Talk about the mission, getting more dads reading at bedtime, the 42% statistic, the ten minutes that makes a difference. Build Jack's world in public. Be vulnerable. Be real. It was a good plan. Then I wro

I'll be honest. I didn't initially set out to write a children's book series with a mission. I didn't even set out to write a children's book. I just wanted to make up some stories where I could make bedtime more fun for my children and connecting with them. The next thing I knew I had written five full stories, had half written another seven/eight quests for Jack the Knight and his friends (not to mention a few stories for an astronaut themed series) have a folder with nearl