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Work Experience
May 27, 2025
Doing my Year 10 work experience at Busybird has inspired me more than I could have hoped. With 80s music playing constantly in the background, it makes the atmosphere even more homely and inviting, although much to the horror of Les, I only got the ABBA songs correct.
After spending the whole morning of my first day stressing about everything possible going wrong, the moment I stepped through the bright orange doors, the first thing that greeted me was Oscar the labrador waiting for attention, and the robot vacuum beeping loudly because it was stuck on the neon orange carpet in front of bright blue walls with shelves stacked with piles of books. Talk about colourfully chaotic.
Before I came to Busybird, I was just a high school student that was guessing how to do pretty much everything in her book and just hoping for the best. Now, I’ve learnt many things that I know will help me to become more successful and grow as a writer. I now know how to edit properly, as well as the sheer amount of time it takes to go through every page in detail and fix every little mistake I’ve made as I’ve poured words onto a page in a hurry of ideas without thinking about how they sounded.
When you’re fifteen and your dream is to be an author, most people don’t have much faith in you. They tell you to ‘find a better paying career’ or ‘just pursue it as a hobby on the side, but to find a real job that will actually get you somewhere in life.’ (No, Dad, I still don’t want to be a doctor.)
Most people don’t understand that not everything is about how much something pays, but it’s about doing something that matters and makes you feel fulfilled at the end of the day. Because yes, I could have a job that has security and pays well, but I’d always feel a lingering sense of regret about choosing something safe over doing something that I’ve known I’ve wanted to do since I was thirteen and wrote the first draft of my book in a black binder with a torch and a Harry Potter pen in the middle of the night.
Sure, sometimes staring at a blank page waiting for the words to come to you can be overwhelming, but when you look back on your manuscript once it’s done, you’ll be thinking, I wrote this. I actually wrote this. And that will be worth the time, the effort, the fighting with yourself not to give up for something easier. Because even though sometimes it can feel impossible to be able to put all these words in your mind onto the page and make them sound good, you’ll find yourself glad you took the leap when you get to type out the last words and look at the worlds you’ve built from your imagination.
As someone who’s always been obsessed with reading, I suppose it’s really no surprise that I ended up desperately dreaming of being an author. I’ve also learnt the hard way how much effort it takes to get yourself noticed in a world where there’s book after book to choose from, and sometimes nothing feels unique anymore, like all your ideas have already been used up by other people. So you need to do it better.
That’s why you need to keep going, why you can’t give up. Because one day in my dreams, someone may be walking through a bookstore, browsing shelf after shelf, and maybe, just maybe, my book will be the one they choose to take home, and it will change their life as much as writing it did mine.
And then it will have all been worth it.
Georgia Milner
Year 10 Work Experience 2025
My Week at Busybird
May 16, 2025Staring at a blank page, writing a blog about … anything?
At first, I was expecting Busybird to be a normal publishing business, very formal, very bland.
When I walked in, those assumptions melted. It was messy, but it was also unique. The decorations hanging up high, the dog, Oscar, greeting my arrival with a few licks and growls. I quickly learnt the names of everyone, and some of the interns present.
My experience here at Busybird so far has been a lovely one.
The environment is nice, friendly and inviting, often welcomed in by interns or Oscar. I was immediately caught off-guard by the sheer amount of stuff lying around. From the stage at the back of the building, and the fidget toys, Rubik’s cubes, to all the photographs and books, and then back to all the old cameras on the shelf. I didn’t think it was possible to have this much stuff in one place, but that’s mainly why I love it.
Busybird Publishing proved to be an easy challenge to get used to, (aside from Les asking me, “Who sings this song?” which I got used to quickly, maybe because he asked me so many times). I fit right in, mainly because I shared similar interests with Les, or had a good conversation with Kev; I could express my opinion on a certain topic.
Of course, then there’s the blasted kettle in the kitchen. I’m nearly positive that thing is possessed by a demon that stops me from making a tea. Why does the kettle have four modes? Why do all the modes have every single type of tea except for the one I want to make? WHY HAS IT GOT A SEPARATE BOIL BUTTON?? It drove me crazy for a good six minutes or so until I realised I just had to click the power button. Simple mistake, but I wasn’t satisfied.
My tasks were pretty simple. “Edit this” or “proofread that” and “social media post this”. I quite enjoyed them, even when certain things gave me five trillion headaches consecutively. It was a challenge, and I liked the work I’d been assigned.
Meeting all the interns was fun, especially since there was so many. They were all friendly and hospitable, and it was great to work alongside them.
So, as I said before, a lovely experience, as well as getting fired every single day of the week for spilling a little tea, a joke which Les has been dragging ALL week.
I give my thanks to Les and Kev, and of course Oscar the dog, for the opportunity to work here.
Jaxon
Work experience student, May 2025.
Get Digging
March 18, 2025
Too many writers sit around waiting for inspiration to fuel them through the course of their writing.
It just won’t happen.
Inspiration is such a small part of the writing process. The rest is hard work.
The reason so many writers fall away from their projects isn’t because they’re no longer inspired – or they’re not receiving a series of inspirations, like a string of firecrackers detonating one after another – but because they just don’t know their project well enough.
Regardless of your writing methodology, before you sit down to commit to the act of writing, you need to know what you’re writing about. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to know every word and idea. Some things will develop organically. But you need to have an intimate familiarity with your content.
If you’re writing a novel, you need to know your world and how it functions. If it’s a contemporary story, jot down all the characters and locations you think you’ll use. Give them brief descriptions and histories. You’ll find this now begins to inform your narrative and contributes to shaping the plotting. If it’s an otherworldly story, you need to know how that place functions.
If it’s an autobiography, a biography, or history of some sort, jot down all the events you’ll cover in a chronology. Determine what the story’s going to be. It’s not just a recount of events. It might be about a triumph over illness, or building a business, or migrating and establishing yourself in a new country. These are just examples, but they demonstrate the story that’ll intertwine through that chronology and give form to the structure.
If it’s a nonfiction book that’s about some sort of methodology – e.g. how to reinvent your life – bullet-point all the things you’ll cover. Look at those bullets. How many of them are main topics? How many of them should be subjunctive of the mains? For example, I might jot down, “meditation”, “breathing exercises”, “self-care”, and “walking”, and then realise instead of having four separate chapters, I should have one chapter called “Self-care”, and put “meditation”, “breathing exercises”, and “walking” as things I’ll cover in that chapter.
If you sit around hoping you can improvise it all the way, and/or that inspiration will continue to inspire, you’ll be waiting around a long time, and grow discouraged.
Your idea is a clue to a treasure you find sitting on the surface of the earth. You’ll have to do some digging to find the rest.
So get digging.
The Bookstore Fiction
March 11, 2025One of the things we hear most from authors is this question: “How do I get my book in bookstores?”
Most indie bookstores are happy to talk directly with authors.
Chains tend to work with distributors – a distributor is a business whose sole purpose for existing is to try get books in bookstores. However, they’re not subcontractors. You don’t hire them the way you’d hire a plumber. The distributor will judge the merit of whether they believe they can get your book in bookstores. They’ll also need ready stock, which means you need a substantial print run for them to distribute.
Also, bookstores aren’t Facebook marketplace. They’re not happy to sell anything. They’ll also judge whether they feel they can sell a book. This might vary from store to store. For example, you’ve written a werewolf horror. Northland QBD might take ten because they sell a lot of horror, but Plenty Valley QBD might decline because that’s not something they sell much in their area.
As an aside, bookstores tend to work on consignment. That means you get paid when they sell the book. If they haven’t sold the books after an agreed amount of time, the books are returned to you. So if you printed 500 books in anticipation of sales, and they only sold 150, you get the 350 books back.
This is a quick recount of the process, because getting books in bookstores isn’t as easy as many think.
There’s also a greater reality at work here, too.
Just because your book is in a bookstore doesn’t mean it’s going to sell in big numbers.
Lots of authors have this misconception – all it takes to get a bestseller is getting your book in a bookstore. That’s it. Their job as an author is done.
Let’s break this down logically.
Here’s the first question to answer: have you been in a bookstore?
Second question: just how many books are in a bookstore? Hundreds? Thousands?
Who gets the prime real estate? Let’s say we’re talking fiction. The books that get the front-and-centre treatment are authors who have a readership and could sell their laundry lists. That means you’ll see Stephen King, Lee Child, Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty, etc.
If you don’t have a track record of sales, why would a bookstore sit your book among that esteemed company? You’re taking up room that an author with a good sales record could occupy.
Likelier, you’re going to be lost in the masses among the new releases on some table, or filed spine-out, alphabetically.
Now why are readers, en masse, going to randomly file into a bookstore, locate your book like they’re on an Easter Egg hunt, and buy it in meaningful numbers?
You’ll sell some. That’s likely.
But bookstores are filled with books, many of them better placed than yours. Are you expecting by some magic that consumers will ignore everybody else’s and migrate exclusively to yours? Why? Because you have a great book? Do you know how many authors think this?
I’m different, you think. You would be surprised just how many authors believe this. It’s great to have confidence, but you’re not alone, and wish fulfillment gets you nowhere.
Now let’s look at the online retailer: going to Amazon and typing in “horror novel”, I get fifty-five hits. First is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. At least in a bookstore, he’d be filed in some classic section. Here, he’s competing directly with you. Next comes John Langan’s The Fisherman, Nick Cutter’s The Troop (with the byline of “TikTok’s favorite horror novel”), a deluxe hardcover version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and then E.B. Hudspeth’s The Resurrectionist.
Scrolling down, I’m already exhausted.
Now Amazon’s search hits are cultivated to my browsing habits, but this will be largely the same return for most people.
Your book is a grain of sand on the beach.
So is this whole blog aimed at disheartening you?
No.
But it is designed to awaken you to the reality that having your book in a physical or online bookstore won’t automatically result in huge sales. I’m sure somewhere in the world, some random has gotten a good return, but this would be the exception, not the rule.
The truth is you have to create awareness for your book, and yourself as an author, and connect with readers. If you can do that, if you can create a buzz around yourself and your work, then consumers will go find your book, wherever it is.
If bookstores are getting inquiries from people asking for your book, they’ll order copies in. They want that business, after all.
But the truth is nobody ever finds something they’re not looking for.
The Ego in Writing
March 4, 2025Years ago, a forty-something friend went to an open workshop at his local library. This friend had been heavily published, worked as a writing mentor, and knew as much (if not more) about writing than most people in the industry.
He said he was petrified as he handed in his work. He was worried what people would say.
Then somebody else came in – a twenty-year-old who handed in his piece, and behaved so cocky he was bordering on arrogance.
My friend didn’t get it – how could he be so afraid of what the workshop would say when somebody with an iota of his experience was so confident?
It puzzled me for a while. Why such different attitudes? Surely the writer with all that experience and skill should be cocky, and the inexperienced writer should be insecure. That’s how it would work in any other field.
But eventually I realised the weird dichotomy at work.
The inexperienced writer knows very little. They’re confident in their writing to the point of obliviousness. Often, they just don’t know enough to see that there might be problems with their writing.
My friend, with all his experience in the industry, knew not only what might be wrong, but that there might even be stuff he hadn’t considered.
Writing’s a strange craft where the more you improve, the more experience you gain, the more insecure you grow.
That’s not such a bad thing, though.
Especially in dealing with feedback.
As much as that fear and insecurity might terrify us, it can – and should – drive us to improve.
It’s worth seriously considering every bit of feedback we receive. We don’t have to take it on, although if we do reject it, we need to measure whether we have a valid argument for rejecting it, or we’re rejecting it out of ego because we want to protect our own self-image.
As an aside, when we receive feedback, we don’t have to consider it literally. For example, a feedbacker might comment on a particular plot point. Now we might acknowledge there’s a problem, but instead come up with a different way to remedy it.
There’s a beauty in revision that opens boundless possibilities – ways to not only improve our work, but our skills as a writer.
So when it comes to writing, sometimes we have to put our ego to one side.
And ride the fear to something better.