I’m sitting on Isabel Costello’s literary sofa today, sharing my experience of being published by a small independent press. So who better to keep my seat warm while I’m away than Teika Bellamy, writer, artist, publisher and founder of another small press, Mother’s Milk Books? Over to you, Teika.
When I became a mother to my firstborn eight years ago, I found it to be a joyful, yet overwhelming time. I was inundated with conflicting advice from health professionals and received very few words of support. I can still clearly remember the sharp reply I received when I asked a nurse for a glass of water: ‘You’ve got a new baby now. You’d better get up and start looking after yourself.’ So I struggled out of bed with my newborn and, weak due to the post-partum haemorrhage and perineal tearing I’d just suffered with, I shuffled down the corridor and somehow managed to extract a cup’s worth of water out of the water cooler. (A difficult task when it requires two hands, you’re holding a baby and it feels like your groin might fall out of your body at any moment!)
Thankfully, due to the support of my husband, mother and a lovely lady that I spoke to on the ABM – Association of Breastfeeding Mothers – helpline who helped me with some early breastfeeding challenges, I managed to overcome the (mostly) usual struggles of new motherhood in the first year. But the sleepless nights continued and no one apparently wanted to listen to a tired, frazzled mother who was, crazily, still breastfeeding her daughter. If only I did x, y, z… then surely all my problems would go away. It was then that, on my sister’s recommendation, I went along to my local La Leche League group in Cambridge and received what I’d be longing for: non-judgemental support. This meant that when I said I was tired, the counsellors and other mothers listened, nodded and empathized. I wasn’t offered advice or told that I was doing it all wrong; they simply listened. I believe that this made a huge difference to my emotional well-being and it gave me the strength and confidence to carry on mothering my daughter in the way that felt right to me.
I wanted to give something back to the charity that had helped me at such a crucial time and so, as a writer with some editorial experience, I decided to produce a fundraising anthology. The more I looked around at the books on offer for new mothers the more I saw that something was missing. Yes, there were (and still are) a few independent publishers who publish books about breastfeeding and mothering, but I knew that with my keen eye for matching art and words I could produce a beautiful something… All I had to do was set up a small press and then produce the book. Simple!
So that was how Mother’s Milk Books was born. Of course, publishing Musings on Mothering wasn’t simple – far from it – but I did manage to produce a beautiful-looking book that had over 100 contributions from writers, artists, poets, mothers, fathers and children. It sold more than 300 copies in the first fortnight after publication and has so far raised close to £1000 in royalties for La Leche League Great Britain.
The wonderful thing about Musings on Mothering was that it put me in touch with so many creative mothers. They wrote to me saying that they loved Musings on Mothering and the idea of Mother’s Milk Books and that there really was a need for beautiful books that reflected their own deep and joyful (though sometimes challenging) experience of mothering.
So, now with a second child and a (potentially) new career, I embarked on creating a publication list for Mother’s Milk Books that would fit in around family life.
I started off with publishing poetry, as it is one of my great loves, and was lucky enough to publish Letting Go by Angela Topping in 2013 and Look At All The Women by Cathy Bryant in 2014 and it was also in 2013 that I began the Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize, which runs annually from September to mid-January and which welcomes poetry and prose from both adults and children. I also allowed myself the joyful project that is The Forgotten and the Fantastical – a series of collections of fairy tales for adults.
So that was how Mother’s Milk Books was born. Of course, publishing Musings on Mothering wasn’t simple – far from it – but I did manage to produce a beautiful-looking book that had over 100 contributions from writers, artists, poets, mothers, fathers and children. It sold more than 300 copies in the first fortnight after publication and has so far raised close to £1000 in royalties for La Leche League Great Britain.
The wonderful thing about Musings on Mothering was that it put me in touch with so many creative mothers. They wrote to me saying that they loved Musings on Mothering and the idea of Mother’s Milk Books and that there really was a need for beautiful books that reflected their own deep and joyful (though sometimes challenging) experience of mothering.
So, now with a second child and a (potentially) new career, I embarked on creating a publication list for Mother’s Milk Books that would fit in around family life.
I started off with publishing poetry, as it is one of my great loves, and was lucky enough to publish Letting Go by Angela Topping in 2013 and Look At All The Women by Cathy Bryant in 2014 and it was also in 2013 that I began the Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize, which runs annually from September to mid-January and which welcomes poetry and prose from both adults and children. I also allowed myself the joyful project that is The Forgotten and the Fantastical – a series of collections of fairy tales for adults.
In the meantime, writers were getting to hear about Mother’s Milk Books and submitting their manuscripts. I was super-excited when, early on, I received Oy Yew by Ana Salote in my email inbox, which was then followed by Baby X by Rebecca Ann Smith and Maysun and the Wingfish by Alison Lock.
Although breastfeeding does feature in Baby X, a high-concept novel about ectogenesis (the process whereby a foetus is grown outside the womb), the other two books don’t. But I just knew I had to publish them. The answer to why I had to publish them was simple. Empathy. Oy, the child hero of Oy Yew, is a wonderful, empathetic character and in Maysun and the Wingfish empathy and a deep respect for nature are key to the story.
Listening to someone with empathy; making a connection with them through empathy is one of the greatest gifts we can give another human being. It is what I longed for when I made a simple request for a glass of water. It is what I will always try to give to readers through the books I publish.
Thank you, Teika, I’m sure many of my readers will applaud your endeavour.
Click on the image to find out more about those books mentioned or go here for more about Mother’s Milk Books in general.
So over to you now, what do you think?
Although breastfeeding does feature in Baby X, a high-concept novel about ectogenesis (the process whereby a foetus is grown outside the womb), the other two books don’t. But I just knew I had to publish them. The answer to why I had to publish them was simple. Empathy. Oy, the child hero of Oy Yew, is a wonderful, empathetic character and in Maysun and the Wingfish empathy and a deep respect for nature are key to the story.
Listening to someone with empathy; making a connection with them through empathy is one of the greatest gifts we can give another human being. It is what I longed for when I made a simple request for a glass of water. It is what I will always try to give to readers through the books I publish.
Thank you, Teika, I’m sure many of my readers will applaud your endeavour.
Click on the image to find out more about those books mentioned or go here for more about Mother’s Milk Books in general.
So over to you now, what do you think?
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