Reading to babies from birth to fight post-natal depression

Postnatal depression is a common and debilitating condition that affects one in seven women following the birth of their baby. Unlike the baby blues which passes on its own, postnatal depression can be long-lasting and affect your ability to cope with managing a new baby. Children’s Author, Michelle Worthington, says that spending five minutes a day reading to her baby helped with the feelings of helplessness, fostered communication and established trust. Reading was a practical and manageable way for her to begin to bond with her baby. It’s important to seek help early, so that you can reduce these negative impacts of postnatal depression on you and your family.

Book Review: All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

 

It's 2.23am. I have just finished reading All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton and my first thoughts are, 'What. Just. Happened?' 

After not responding to knocks at doors, scrapes on knees and fire alarms at dinner time, I thought it was safer to finish reading it after the boys had gone to bed. My head was filled with white butterflies, white bones, hope, hate, love, life and death. Just as I became Eli Bell in Boy Swallows Universe,  growing up as a too smart kid in a shut your mouth Brisbane suburb, so was I Molly Hook, head full of words and infallibly optimistic, no matter what life threw at me. Only Trent Dalton can make you loose yourself in a book like that. 

I hate snot. The hardest page of the book for me to read wasn't when the gravedigger's daughter hid with her mother's bones in an open grave, got the beating or saw the rape, it was page 173. It was also the most incredibly moving and mind blowing piece of descriptive writing that I have ever read in my life. In that moment, snot was poetic and graceful. Only Trent Dalton can create characters like that.

The same suffocating pang that squeezed the tears from my eyes when I relived my childhood in Boy Swallows Universe were shed for Molly and Violet Hook. I talked to oceans instead of skies. I spat out pills instead of seeds. I had the monsters in my bed, after I had fed and cared for them all day until they became twisted by drink and darkness. I have carried all I owned and owned all I carried. Only Trent Dalton can see inside my soul like that. 

Now, as I check on my sleeping children under the dark sky, I speak softly to it. 'Please don't let anything happen to me so my kids don't end up like a character in a Trent Dalton novel.' 

When the blue sky returns, I will ask politely if one day I could write a book as honest and beautiful as a Trent Dalton novel, and I wouldn't even care if it lied.

Highly recommended. 

How much money do you make as a picture book author?

First, can I say, bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!

When I do writing workshops for authors wanting to write picture books, I am very honest and open with them about how much money you make. Let me show you how I break it down using last financial year as an example. Bear in mind, that last financial year, I had a baby and wasn't actively doing market stalls and school visits, but as this is based on me having 8 published picture books, it will give first time authors an idea of what to expect in the beginning. Are you ready?

Income for 2013-2014 Financial Year

Royalties from the sale of picture books $672.23
Payment for 'Help on Heels' editing service $150
Lending rights from public and school libraries $1639.55

Total Income $2461.78

Wait for it..

Expenses

Cost of stock, Phone, Postage, Eftpos Machine fees, Business Insurance, Conference fees, Competition fees, memberships $5210.53

Total Profit -$2748.75

This is why my accountant shakes his head at me every year and asks "why are you doing this again?" This is just my example and I don't believe there would be many other authors brave enough to break it down like this to show you their actual income. I don't blame them, especially if you have partners who also question why you keep running a business at a loss. So why do you and is there a way to make a profit?

In the start of any business, the first couple of years are going to be tough. This was my third tax return, and I'm glad to say, even though I still made a loss, it was a smaller loss than the previous years. It will change, as my social media platform grows, I keep submitting manuscripts to bigger publishers as I earn my dues and hopefully, when I one day write the 'best seller'. Until then, I keep working at it every day, just like any small business owner.

It seems to me many authors supplement their income by writing books or ebooks on how to be successful authors. They are top sellers, easy to produce and have a large audience. You are reading this blog, right? No one would buy my book, it would be filled with the truth.

Another way that I really enjoy is to conduct workshops, do paid author visits, set up an editing business and blog. Even though it doesn't pay a million bucks, it's income. And its the part of marketing myself as an author that I really love.

Which brings me to the reason I keep going. Because I love it. I love writing picture books. I love seeing my stories in print, sharing them with people all over the world, winning awards and being recognised by my 8 year old groupies when I sell books at the local markets. It's my passion.

At the same time, I'm not stupid. I have a 5 year plan, like most organised small business owners, and if there comes a time when the money I am spending on my business is taking away from the money I need to keep a roof over my families heads, then I stop. But until that time comes, I focus, with a positive attitude, on my financial goal of making a profit as a picture book author. Stay tuned, I will let you know when it happens...

Talk soon
x Michelle
www.michelleworthington.com