Strength In Stories

Aim

Help us to create more opportunities for underrepresented creatives by publishing stories that celebrate our beautifully diverse world

We believe that children’s literature should reflect the world we live in, and that all children should be able to see themselves reflected back from the books they love.

Diverse owned and led publishers are a crucial part of the solution to embedding change in UK publishing and working together is a positive way to create this change. That’s why we’ve come together to create Strength in Stories.

We are three independent micro publishers who have the same aims. We want to do more to support and champion underrepresented writers, publish inclusive stories in the UK, celebrate our beautifully diverse world, and change the publishing status quo.  

With our crowdfunder we're seeking £10,000 to cover the basic production costs of publishing 3 new high quality inclusive children’s books by emerging creators from marginalised backgrounds.

Who are Strength in Stories?

Strength in Stories is a collaborative measure that includes Dinosaur Books, Formy Books and Parakeet Books. We are determined to challenge the status quo in children’s fiction: we want to see an industry that celebrates our beautifully diverse world – both on and off the page.

We’re micro publishers (tiny businesses), owned and run by a group of people that traditionally have been excluded from the highest levels in publishing.

Here are some of the wonderful children’s books we’ve published. 

Why is this needed?

What’s different about Strength in Stories?

We are three tiny and diverse companies who are all deeply involved in every single aspect of each book that we publish. From editing, to designing, to marketing and more – there is not one aspect that we aren’t closely involved with. We own our companies: which means we’re in charge – from making the tea to making the big decisions. We believe that inclusion means disadvantaged groups having agency. Owning our companies gives us the power to publish the stories that we believe in.

• Children’s fiction is slowly getting better at representation on the page: but we believe that true inclusion means space for everyone, at all levels of the publishing journey. It’s only when the owners, editors and workforces at publishing houses are drawn from a wider and more diverse pool of talent that we will see this change embedded.
• Diverse owned and managed publishers are a crucial part of the solution to embedding change in UK publishing. This helps us to remain ethical in creating more opportunities for underrepresented writers and illustrators to get their unique children’s stories out into the world. Inclusion can’t be superficial. It is only meaningful when underrepresented groups have power. We need underrepresented children to know that they too can be in charge when they’re older. 
• We think working together, as a team, is a positive way to create change: teamwork is a value that we teach to children all the time: we’re modelling collaboration and teamwork as a positive way to create change for good. Pulling on each others strengths to better realise our dream. 
• Our authors and illustrators learn with us; often it’s their first step in publishing. We’re a part of the industry that is open to publishing emerging creatives. We love working with and nurturing debut talent that may have otherwise been overlooked, and our different perspective on publishing allows them the opportunity to have more freedom and creativity in their work.

What’s the aim of Strength in Stories?

Our first target is to publish three titles – one from each publisher – which reflects our core values and gives a chance to some debut talent that is underrepresented in publishing.

Dinosaur Books Ltd will publish an upper middle grade adventure: Last Girl In by debut British Caribbean author, Cheryl Diane Parkinson

Last Girl In features a cricket-loving London girl - Kerry Ann. She’s bold, brilliant (at cricket) – and determined to both play the game she loves and live her life, on her own terms. This is a magical, time-slip tale in which Kerry Ann discovers how to face down the local bullies by learning from her grandad’s experiences in London back in the 1950s. It’s a celebration of cricket, British Caribbean culture and girls in sport.

Parakeet Books Ltd will publish Paper Boats (working title), a luscious picture book by Devjani Bodepudi, illustrated by fresh talent Anushka Bansal.

Aadi visits his lovely Nanamma in India but it's monsoon season and Aadi is bored, bored, bored! Nanamma has some tricks up her sleeves to relieve his boredom but who's that watching from behind the rain clouds?

Formy Books will publish a heartwarming and empowering LGBTQIA+ inclusive picture book written by debut author Ashley Baptiste and illustrated by Jardley Jean-Louis.

Perfect for ages 5, the yet unnamed title is an uplifting and heartwarming celebration of family togetherness and acceptance.

Why Crowdfunder?

It’s a really tough time for everyone; and indie publishing is unfortunately no different. Rising paper, printing and admin costs mean that our already (super) tight margins have been streched to threadbare. 

Offering pre-orders via crowdfunding is a fantastic way for us to better manage our print runs which is better for the environment and our budgets – meaning that we can ensure that our fantastic books reach a wider audience. 

Who are the publishers of Strength in Stories?

 Sonya McGilchrist, Dinosaur Books Ltd

Sonya previously worked as a journalist for BBC One, BBC Two and Radio 4 and she pursues the same values in publishing that motivated her as a journalist - integrity, a belief in quality and above all, respect for the audience. Her aim is to offer young readers page-turning stories that feature a range of characters and locations that go beyond those that are usually represented in children’s books. This could be through characters’ class or race, as well as through the locations and cultural context of stories.

Ebony Lyon, Formy Books CIC 

Ebony co-founded Formy Books in early 2020, and comes from a commercial sales background. She is passionate about delivering cutting edge children’s picture books featuring under-represented Black communities. Her passion goes beyond what is inside the pages; she is also focused on emerging Black representation in the arts and fighting for inclusivity throughout children’s publishing.

Judy Skidmore and Sheju John 

Judy was a graphic designer in magazine publishing, making information look beautiful. And Sheju runs a techfirm. When their children came along, like many people, they got fed up with searching in vain for diverse kids books and they started making their own. Judy loves the creative process of making a book: the wordplay, the artwork, the design. Sheju loves the rhythm of storytelling. Together they want to create a place where hitherto marginalised voices can shout their stories from the rooftops

We appreciate every single bit of support we get! Please share on socials using #StrengthInStories to help us get our campaign out to a huge audience. We believe in our creators and these books, please help us to publish them in 2023!

Sonya, Ebony, Judy and Sheju x

This project successfully funded on 17th November 2022