Highlights from a chat with Annabelle Sami

(from the Edinburgh Book Festival 2023)

Earlier this year, I sat down for a chat with children’s author Annabelle Sami. Annabelle joined me from her flat in East London, and we holed ourselves up in a Discord server and got stuck right in. We discussed all things children’s fiction, being your own biggest fan, and the importance of prioritising your mental health. After a brief faff around with microphones and a very cute cameo from Annabelle’s cat Mittens, we found a rhythm; our in-depth discussion left me feeling freshly inspired and itching to get started on new creative projects. 

Annabelle Sami is a children’s author, who is passionate about introducing young people to characters they can relate to, by exploring a diverse range of narratives in middle-grade fiction. Annabelle is the author of two series: the first being the charming detective series Agent Zaiba Investigates, and the second being Llama Out Loud. Marketing children’s fiction has proven challenging in recent years, with the pandemic introducing new obstacles for authors trying to connect with their young readers. However, by the easing of restrictions at the tail end of 2021, a whole new host of opportunities presented themselves; in the last couple of years, a big part of Annabelle’s career has involved darting from school to school doing talks for children. And it’s all worth it when a little girl comes up to you and says, “Hey, Agent Zaiba looks just like me!” 

Here are some of my favourite moments from my interview with Annabelle Sami.

(This is part of an interview I did with Annabelle, for an episode of my podcast Creative License: Inside the Worlds of Rising Artists. You can listen to both parts of the episode in full, on whatever platform you get your podcasts!)

Lina: How does it feel to have concluded two major series?

Annabelle: It felt like a really natural point for both of them to end - I’m really happy with where they went, and that they ended when they did. I always say, I’d hate to continue writing something just because of a contractual obligation. It was a strange feeling, realising that they were both wrapping up, because it brought up all these questions, like: what am I gonna do next?

She seems to drift away for a moment, staring into a faraway corner of the room, seeming to recall a period of existential questioning. 

A: At that time, I realised that I kind of stumbled into becoming a children’s author. I always wanted to be a writer, but I never set out to write for children. After both series came to an end, it caused me to think about my career as an author for the first time. That was quite interesting and I had multiple crises about what I wanted to do, but I think it’s fun to think about all the possibilities. Once I’d come out of the crisis, I came to a place where I felt excited again! 

Annabelle beams with pixelated pride, and her passion for her craft is palpable even through my dusty screen. Fast forward, and we talk about the importance of children growing up with narratives that they can relate to.

A: If you're creating work for children in any type of work, then you should be interested in their actual lives. That’s what I always say in my advice to people who want to write children's books: hang out with children, like your friend's children or whatever children you have in your peripheral life. Find out what they enjoy and what they're interested in, what they're worried about. Engage with the content they're engaging with. I'm on Tik Tok all the time and I find it really, really useful. Because that's what young people are using. Social media is the easiest way to get an insight into what kids care about, and what's going on in their worlds. I've heard other children's authors sort of dismissing it as just being a silly thing, and not being important. And I'm thinking, it's so important - It's a really easy way to engage with your readers and the people who would be reading your books. I think that other children’s authors see it as another form of self-promotion. But if you're just going on Tik Tok and making endless videos which just feature a slideshow of the cover of your book, nobody is gonna care. Because that’s not the content that people engage with!

Annabelle touches on her upcoming project - another middle-grade series called Dreamweavers. It’s about a boy called Tito who becomes friends with a new girl at school, Neena. Neena introduces Tito to the world of dreamweaving, and the two go on nightly adventures, in which Tito learns that he himself is a dreamweaver. The first book in the series, Night of the Scary Fairies, glints on my shelf as I write this. It’s a signed copy, and the words on the inside front cover stay with me: Never stop dreaming. A sweet reminder to carry your childlike wonder with you throughout life.

Recalling moments of sometimes laughing at her own writing, Annabelle shares the importance of hyping yourself up, and discusses the complexities of making your passion your profession.

A: You definitely do have to be your own biggest fan. But sometimes, it’s super easy to be your own biggest enemy. When I started freelance writing, I was the worst boss for myself because I never gave myself weekends and I always felt like I had to be productive. It got to the point where I hated writing, because of the pressure to write a good book. The fact that my rent was dependent on me meeting deadlines put too much pressure on me. I made the decision to go back to getting a part-time job in the arts as a producer, and I’m currently working for the theatre company Fevered Sleep, where I still get the chance to work with children. Knowing that I don’t have to write to pay the bills, and making that transition, really helped me realise how much I love writing as my side hustle. 

L: How do you achieve a work-life balance when you’ve always got fresh deadlines to meet?

A: So my first book came out just before the pandemic started, and then I delivered around four books per year over 2021 and 2022. It was relentless and I made a rod from my own back because at the beginning I would write and edit really quickly, giving off the impression that I could handle it. That meant that I would be given deadlines that would require me to turn around a book in just a month. I hated writing and wanted to quit because it didn’t feel worth it - the thing that I loved became a huge source of anxiety for me. After a break from writing, I suddenly had a day where I had this urge to write something, and it was purely for fun. It was the first time I had the impetus to do that in three years! Now that I’m writing Dreamweavers, I’m having so much fun and really enjoying writing new things again. Putting down firm boundaries is essential. 

Annabelle’s latest endeavour, Night of the Scary Fairies, (the first book in the Dreamweavers series) is out now! You can also listen to both episodes of the podcast and hear my full interview on Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. This is an extract from Creative License: Inside the Worlds of Rising Artists with Lina Adams.