Stuart Trotter – Director – Rockpool Children´s Books

I've been illustrating for many years and my introduction to the world of children´s books was through Purnell in Paulton, Somerset. I did a character called Portland Bill. Over the years I´ve illustrated for most of the big publishers – Hodder, Treehouse, Simon and Schuster, Walker, Boxer Books, Penguin, etc.

I was involved with Reed (now Egmont) on Winnie the Pooh (Classic) – I think I´m an accredited Disney Artist as I went on a Disney Classic Pooh course at their headquarters in London. I also did some covers for Enid Blyton´s Five, Ten and Fifteen Minute Tales, and this led onto The Animals of Farthing Wood.

I did Postman Pat for Hodder for about five years, then Mick Inkpen´s Kipper came along. It was inevitable that such close proximity to this wonderful industry would inspire my own ideas, and so it did.

Having ideas and getting them into print are, of course, two very different things, but I had little doubt that there was room for another publisher – even one with a lot to learn. It´s been a huge learning curve, but fortunately Richard Powell at EmmaTreehouse said he´d help in any way he could. Collectively, EmmaTreehouse have advised me on the whole publishing process, introduced me to foreign publishers, sales and marketing people, and helped with the complicated business of pricing, as well as simply being on hand during the darkest hours. They´ve been brilliant.

I went to the major book fairs in the year before we published, Bologna, London, BEA, Frankfurt, firstly to try and sell a series I worked on with an American partner, Elaine Lonergan, the Toddlersaurus series, but also to show my own books and see what was around.

From what I saw, and the positive response to my book ideas, I decided I had something to offer. We published our first four titles in October 2006, launching at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

(I´ve now done four Frankfurts and three Bologna Children´s Book Fairs.)

Koala Books, in Australia, took my first four books, Greedy Grumpy Hippo, Big Bully Hippo, My Perfect Pet and Boomerang Bear. It was the leg up I needed.

Three years on and we now have 22 tiitles published, several by new authors. We published Heather´s book, Riding on an Elephant in January 2009, and now Sam Walshaw´s Little Fairies and Lulubell, with four new titles by Sam publishing in 2010.

I used to admire the position of art directors in publishing houses, dealing with the variety of styles and illustrators. Now I´m in that position, commissioning picture books and deciding who illustrates them. It´s great! What I wasn´t quite prepared for was the volume of submission´s we attract. Initially I used to respond personally, but the amount we get and some unfortunate responses to constructive criticism have forced the standard rejection letter. I regret that but writing to everyone would leave little time for anything else.

I´ve been involved in the publishing industry for years as an illustrator, and that´s where it always ended… the art would be handed over and what happened next was a blur until the six free copies turned up. In early 2006 I embarked on a huge learning curve and I´m still on it, but up to now, Rockpool has sold books to Australia, France, USA, South Korea, Bogota, Italy.

As well as Rockpool, I also write and illustrate the Rupert Bear Annual for Egmont.