Alan Windram was a part-time theatre nurse with a passion for musical theatre when he began working with a children’s theatre company travelling to nurseries and schools in Scotland and the north of England. “I’d never worked with kids before, so it was scary times,” he jokes. However, he “loved it” and when it wound down, he decided to turn to writing for children himself, self-publishing a series called Mac and Bob. After he reached out to children’s author and lecturer Vivian French to find an illustrator, the two became friendly and French was so impressed by the production quality of his books that she decided to publish her next title with him. So began Little Door Books.
French’s picture book, Captain Crankie and Seadog Steve, illustrated by Alison Bartlett, was published in 2016. Following advice from literary agents, Alan and his wife Susan decided to continue working with established writers. “We were really keen to bring new illustrators into the publishing world, so we went round degree shows, we found people online and at Bologna on the illustrators’ wall, and built up a database of these amazing illustrators that we wanted to bring up by putting them with known authors,” says Alan. He continues: “It’s finding the right person for the right story, and it’s worked really well.”
He references a couple of illustrators that Little Door discovered, who have since been published by Little Tiger and found critical success: Francis Martin and Anders Frang.“We know we’re small and we can’t cover the world, but we’ve been able to bring new people into the industry and give them a platform so the industry can see what they’re doing, which has been fantastic.”
In terms of output, Little Door “started quite slowly with one book a year, and we gradually did more”. Along the way, in 2019 Alan was named Emerging Publisher of the Year at the The Saltires, Scotland’s National Book Awards, and picked up the Bookbug Picture Book Prize for One Button Benny.
The same year, the press received funding to put out its first Little Door debut, written and illustrated by a new creator, and has subsequently released five more. Before Covid-19 hit, it was ramping up to produce five books a year, but then had to “pull right back”. Now, it is putting out three or four annually and, more recently, this has expanded to include chapter books for six to nine-year-olds in response to librarians telling Alan there are not enough titles in this space.
If you’re going to do something, you must do it to the highest-possible quality spec that you can afford
The company has started off with two series: the Uncle Pete books written by David C Flanagan and illustrated by Will Hughes, and debut author Louisa MacDougall’s Rory the Dragon series, illustrated by Giulia Cregut. Alan has also turned his hand to chapter books, with a new series launching in April next year. “I’ve only written picture books, so it has been really interesting writing more words and really fun to think of a different age range to work with.”
The feedback from schools, libraries and children so far has been “amazing”, according to Alan. He adds: “We’ve found that sales-wise they’ve been building year-on-year. We’ve always looked at it as long term.” Now a back catalogue has been created, they hope to get the books into more libraries and sell foreign rights for them. They are also looking at potentially moving into middle-grade publishing at some point. Alan says: “We’re expanding, but we’re doing it slowly. We’re going to try not to run before we can walk.”
Little Door has also been branching out in another direction over the past couple of years – soft launching an adult non-fiction lifestyle imprint, Tin Shack Press, headed up by Susan. Although she has always been involved with Little Door and the couple made joint business decisions, she admits she took a “back seat” while Alan ran things day-to-day as she focused on her day job as editor of the Oban Times. Like Little Door Books, Tin Shack Press came about organically.
Susan explains: “We moved up to Oban for my job and we got to know Donna, who runs the café that we did the first cookery book with. I got into journalism because I enjoy working with people. I like their stories. So, the book seemed a great fit.” Roxy’s Cake & Bake includes recipes as well as photography and the stories of the people (and dogs) who frequent the café. Alan says the move “felt like a no-brainer” as he already had publishing experience and industry contacts in place. Despite mainly being sold through the café, Oban’s Waterstones branch and some independent bookshops, the title is about to get its third print-run since its publication in October 2022.
Reflecting on the experience of publishing the book, Susan tells me: “I enjoyed it so much, I thought ‘I would quite like to do more of this’. My day job is very deadline driven, so it’s quite nice to actually have a wee bit more time to think creatively.” She is now planning to step back slightly from her day job to focus on Tin Shack Press, which will launch in earnest this summer with the publication of Food Whisky Life, from Cairngorms-based writer, broadcaster and food anthropologist Ghillie Başan. It is a revamped version of a book published with Kitchen Press in 2019, pitched as part-recipe book and part-memoir. Susan says: “What began as a project to simply repackage Spirit and Spice became a two-year labour of love for Ghillie and I as we worked together on what became a much more personal story of her journey… I’m really excited for people to see it.”
Going forwards, the plan is for Gardners to manage the distribution of the Tin Shack Press books (Little Door’s is done through Bounce Sales & Marketing). The business model for the imprint is also different to that of the main list. Alan says: “Tin Shack Press is funding itself through book sales. With Roxy’s Cake & Bake, we joined together with Donna so that we both put half in, and then we both got enough from the sales to pay that off and also to do the reprint.”
The duo plans to release one or two Tin Shack Press titles a year to start with, but “that might change”, says Susan, adding: “Hopefully, over the next couple of years we’ll be looking to expand what we’re doing with the non-fiction side of things. We’ve got quite a few ideas and we’ve approached a couple of people who are very interested.” They also want to bring out a book focusing on their own experience of building their house in Oban, sharing their journey as well as practical tips.
When it comes to commissioning titles, Alan says: “It’s not just looking for things that’ll do well, it’s actually about the stories.” He adds: “The main thing for me with Little Door Books – which we’ve taken into Tin Shack Press – is if you’re going to do something, you must do it to the highest-possible quality spec that you can afford.” Susan continues: “Where we live, a lot of the stuff is based around food and hospitality, and there are some great people and great ideas. There are good community stories, so we’re just going to explore that side of things.”
