Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
With all things in life, it’s a balancing act. We feel extremely lucky as our three girls have grown up, and we’re onto the next generation now with one grandchild and another one on the way. It’s wonderful to be able to share our books with our family first as guinea pigs! Especially as these books are aimed at under 5 year-olds so it’s great to have a captive audience to start with.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
Having no previous publishing experience has made this a real adventure with some great hurdles to overcome. But that’s half the fun! Finding markets for our books has definitely been the number one challenge, followed by the process of finding foreign printers to produce good-quality books at a good price.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
There’s nothing quite like the excitement of seeing children reading our books. We know that the kids love our books, but the hardest thing is standing out for the adults when there are so many options to choose from.. We’ve had to work harder, but the rewards have been greater.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
We’d love to see our books in every home in New Zealand and we’re looking forward to one of our books being available in Te Reo next year. We’ve got new titles being released soon with a brand-new humorous tale not far away, plus a third new title in production for an older age group. The beautiful illustrations will not disappoint! We’d love to get our books into Australia next before we take on the rest of the world.
Head to the Black Chook Books website to learn more and to view their wonderful collection of children’s books.
