AN AUTHOR has scooped more honours to add to her growing list as she makes waves in the world of publishing.
But Jo Perry has all the approval she needs at home – her children liking her titles.
The 43-year-old, who lives in Delph, has scooped worldwide recognition for Ready, Steady, SAIL! By receiving an honourable mention in the Picture Books Six and Older category and second place in Humour in the 2022 Royal Dragonfly Awards.
Not bad for a mother who received inspiration from reading with her children and like any good author, she is not sitting back on her laurels.
“It’s something I’d always fancied doing but had always put off,” said Jo.
“I had a full-time job but when I had children, I started reading picture books to them every night and it reopened my passion.
“Sometimes I’d read one and think, ‘That’s a great book,’ and that would inspire me but equally if I read a bad one, that would inspire me too.
“I’d think, ‘I can do better than that. I can illustrate better and write a better story.’
“I started off illustrating corporate material – brochures and that kind of things – but I was asked a few years ago if I could illustrate someone’s children’s book.
“Since then, I’ve illustrated five for other authors and started doing my own as I was sued tom the process and thought, ‘Why not?’
“I had so many ideas in my head and it was always something I fancied having a go at.
“It was a very steep learning curve and learned a lot from other authors online. I just uploaded my first book to Amazon and nothing happened as I hadn’t told anyone about it.
“So I found out how to market it but my third book skyrocketed, it got in the top 50 in the US in the adventure category. I was rubbing shoulders with very famous authors!”
Jo, who has worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for more than 20 years, admits she is now fitting books around her job and says it takes about six months to write one.
She says she is going to stick to her humourous style as ‘it is like a comfy pair of shoes’ as she loke books that are entertaining for kids and adults.
And she is already on her way to her seventh release, which has a personal theme – daughter Lorna, six.
“It’s about a princess and a unicorn,” she told the Independent. “When I showed my daughter Ready, Steady, SAIL! I asked, ‘Shall we read another book?’
“She replied, ‘Is there a princess in it? Is there a unicorn in it?’ I said no to both but it stuck in my head.
“If my daughter wants to read about a princess and a unicorn, that’s what I was going to write about next.
“My daughter may be the inspiration but she’s definitely not the princess – in the book, she’s a spoiled brat and she gets her comeuppance.
“I wrote my first book about Lorna and my second about my son, Tom. After then I just caught the bug.”
Jo has already released I Am a Shell abut is delighted with the recognition for Ready, Steady, SAIL!, which can be compared to The Tortoise and The Hare, in that a slow animal and a quick animal have a race.
But as she says: “The end is much more satisfying, and the story is much funnier.”
She continued: “I’m honoured and surprised at the recognition in equal measure,” said Jo about her fourth title’s nod. “I had to read that I had won twice!
“There’s some serious competition, these awards are specifically for self-published authors but it’s still a global competition.
“And about a third of the world’s sales are for self-published work, so there are a lot more people doing them.”
All Jo’s books are available on Amazon and can be ordered from any bookshop.
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