So you think you’re a writer

A website name like fionamackenziewrites would definitely make me, make time to write – that was my thinking. I could even make a time to write at 5am every morning like some writers I know. That rarely happened for me, despite the call of the birds and cicadas including the extra early light of daylight saving. I’m not disciplined with writing, except if I have a project such as this one about teaching writing. The draft pretty much flowed onto the page before getting feedback from anyone. Somehow though time flies by and many things in life seem to creep in to demand attention. To add to that, I decided that since I was teaching less and had more time I could have a puppy. Prior to this I was a committed cat owner and still grieving for the loss of a beautiful Balinese family cat of 16 years. I admit that I failed to realise what gaining a puppy would mean. A puppy wasn’t just a bit of company and a cuddly fur ball. Apart from needing much attention and a couple of daily walks, the vigilance that is required to check what’s going into the puppy mouth is quite substantial when wishing to prevent damage to clothing, glasses cases, collections of socks or to retrieve some plastic item which could potentially create a scarily huge vet bill! I didn’t get that having a puppy is kind of like having another child – a permanent toddler – joyful and fun, but quite an amount of extra work. I very definitely and consciously put that distraction into my life myself. However; I did still manage to write a book, so it wasn’t all puppy love!

 Self-publishing 2024 – who could predict what an incredible journey that would be. It was very convenient that Writing NSW had a course on self-publishing which I attended in February 2024. It alerted me to some of the pitfalls and the benefits of taking on self-publishing a book.  My book was aimed at such a small market I doubted the publishers I sent it to would take it on and I knew I had to be prepared to publish myself.

I’ve learned so much over the past year and met many wonderful people along the way including enlisting the expertise of family and friends. Thanks go to Writing NSW for the courses and contacts for editors and proof readers. My fantastic editor and writer Eila Jameson Avey brought her writing, teaching and editing expertise to the job. Laura Boon proof read my work with a fine tooth comb and after her years of experience in the publishing industry had great tips to give me on publishing and printing. My close friend Sue put me onto my amazing book designer Ulla Korgaard. With Ulla’s guidance and expertise in the style, layout, colour, papers and art work, the beautiful book I envisaged came to fruition.

Bookbinder friend Cali @Andersen’s Bindery referred me to a Sydney printer – Tony at Morgan Printing. He was the most accommodating and calm person to work with, especially when there were a few last minute changes after I read through the proof copy. Thankyou Laura for insisting ‘Yes, always get a proof copy!’ There are a couple of small lower case c’s that are my fault, not Laura’s, and the odd space missed but only I’m allowed to notice those! Obtaining copy write proved to be a time consuming mission in some cases, but Chicken House were very easy to deal with and I counted that as a success. I decided to omit the other publisher that was sending me in circles to obtain the correct person to deal with. In the end it was easier to delete the paragraph example I wanted to use.

Every day as I sat down to write, I had in front of mind Montessori teachers in Montessori classrooms and although this work could be useful to teachers in other classrooms, it’s especially directed to align with the Montessori method. I sincerely hope this book will be useful to Australian and New Zealand Montessori teachers who want some guidance and direction in the process of teaching the craft of writing to children aged 6-12. It’s also likely that ages 13 and 14 would get a lot out of some of the later lesson content.

 I’m proud of how the book has turned out and glad I chose to print it in Sydney. I think people will see that it was worth it. It feels great to finally hold the physical book and although choosing to self-publish was often a challenging learning curve, it proved to be a great project for me. Marketing is another new perspective entirely and I’m grateful to be supported by MSCA and many Montessori colleagues in distributing information and getting the word out there.

If you want to purchase books are available from this website February14. If you preorder, you’ll get first preference.

Books will be available for purchase at the book launch in Sydney February 12. Invitations will be sent out soon.

Thanks for supporting this initiative.

Why only distribute in Australia and NZ?

 If it’s received well here I will decide whether to enlist the help of Amazon in printing and distributing in America. That’s work for another day!

Let me know what you think.

Fiona