For New South Wales-based picture book author Bec Nanayakkara, the past few years have been quite a whirlwind. A graduate of the Australian Writers' Centre Writing Picture Books course, Bec found success immediately with her first two books Grow Big, Little Seed and Book Star – published by Hardie Grant and Affirm Press respectively.
And in 2025, her third book is out now with Woodslane Press – The Jolly Swagman. As the title hints, this book (beautifully illustrated by Kim de Haan) is a retelling of Banjo Paterson's famous ‘Waltzing Matilda'. And for Bec, finding inspiration was easy.
“I'm a big Banjo Paterson fan,” she says. “Growing up, his poetry brought that era of Australia to life in my imagination. I wanted to make his work and his world more accessible to my children, and maybe other children too. Slowly but surely, the idea for The Jolly Swagman was born.”
Bec has found success across various publishers and topics in a fairly short time – so we asked her to share the top 5 things she has learnt in the past few years or so as a picture book author.
1. Give your stories time
“All the experts say, put your finished story away for some weeks, or even months, and come back to it with fresh eyes. When I started writing, this idea seemed appalling. I just wanted to get my stories out to publishers – after all, you can't get a contract if you're not submitting, right? But now, four years on, when I'm writing a new story, I already have others out on submission. So, my pace and panic have slowed. Finally, I've felt okay to put stories aside for later. And the verdict? Yes, it's true, sometimes, a good lengthy break really can help a story grow.”
2. There's no magic formula
“Writing to become published is tough. There are stumbling blocks you can't even see. There's no magic formula and success really does involve a certain element of blessing. Last year I had a story go to acquisitions [the meeting publishers have to determine whether to acquire a book or not]. It was a story about telling the truth and it involved a broken vase. The story didn't make it through, and one piece of feedback I received was that this publisher already had a story – a completely different story – that featured a broken vase. Some of the team felt the two titles might be confused. This opened my eyes to the fact that there are just so many things to be considered in acquisition meetings! My take away from this is to write what I want to write (not what I think the publisher might want to read) and to never take rejections personally.”
3. Community is everything!
“I was lucky to find an online writing community quite quickly. And I was excited about this because now I had people who could give me feedback on my manuscripts. But I soon discovered that the Kid Lit community is way more than just manuscript feedback. Writing to be published can be an emotionally draining activity. Having people who get it – people who can support you and celebrate with you – is such a wonderful thing.”
4. Fill your creative bucket
“There have been times when I'm so caught up in writing, I forget about the activities that fill my creative bucket. Things like reading, or listening to podcasts, or engaging in short courses, or workshops, or meditation, or walking in nature or anything else remotely inspirational. Then, I'm shocked to find that I feel drained and my writing seems dry. What I've figured out (and of course, it seems so obvious now) is that our stories reflect our world – the more of the world we take in, the more vibrant our stories. Now I prioritise these creative bucket filling activities and, even if it means losing out on some writing time, it's definitely worth it.”
5. It's not personal (probably)
“I've worked with a few different publishers now. Each one is different. Some are fast to respond to e-mails, others not so much. I've spent time worrying that people don't like me, wondering what I've done wrong. But I've learnt a lot about the publishing industry and I'm finally coming to accept that publishers are just really busy! They have multiple projects, at multiple different stages, all happening at once, and tasks that don't have a deadline attached can easily fall between the cracks. Of course, this doesn't mean it's not personal. It still could be personal, but there's no way of knowing. There's no point overthinking it. All I can do is keep submitting.”
And a bonus tip
We also asked Bec how the AWC Writing Picture Books course had helped her career. “Immensely!” was her reply. She then elaborated: “There were so many practical things I had no idea about. Like how many words and pages a picture book should have, and how a manuscript should be formatted for submission, and how to include essential illustration notes in the manuscript. There were also so many creative things I had no idea about. Not only did AWC give me all the picture book writing information, they packaged it up into a really manageable and easy-to-follow course. If I had been wise enough to save the course materials, I would still be referring back to them today.”
So there’s your bonus tip – save those course materials as they’ll keep being useful!
And in 2025, her third book is out now with Woodslane Press – The Jolly Swagman. As the title hints, this book (beautifully illustrated by Kim de Haan) is a retelling of Banjo Paterson's famous ‘Waltzing Matilda'. And for Bec, finding inspiration was easy.
“Writing to become published is tough. There are stumbling blocks you can't even see. There's no magic formula and success really does involve a certain element of blessing. Last year I had a story go to acquisitions [the meeting publishers have to determine whether to acquire a book or not]. It was a story about telling the truth and it involved a broken vase. The story didn't make it through, and one piece of feedback I received was that this publisher already had a story – a completely different story – that featured a broken vase. Some of the team felt the two titles might be confused. This opened my eyes to the fact that there are just so many things to be considered in acquisition meetings! My take away from this is to write what I want to write (not what I think the publisher might want to read) and to never take rejections personally.”
“I've worked with a few different publishers now. Each one is different. Some are fast to respond to e-mails, others not so much. I've spent time worrying that people don't like me, wondering what I've done wrong. But I've learnt a lot about the publishing industry and I'm finally coming to accept that publishers are just really busy! They have multiple projects, at multiple different stages, all happening at once, and tasks that don't have a deadline attached can easily fall between the cracks. Of course, this doesn't mean it's not personal. It still could be personal, but there's no way of knowing. There's no point overthinking it. All I can do is keep submitting.”
