Author Interview with Alex Hallatt

Our guest author today is Alex Hallatt, a cartoonist who created an illustrated account of her years in Hondarribia, Spain. It’s less of a travel guide, and more a written and pictorial representation of her observations about life in the Basque country.

Since becoming an author, my goal has always been to illustrate my own books. I really like the idea of publishing travel guides or nonfiction books with my hand-drawn illustrations in them. I dabble in pen and ink drawings, and always have a small art pad and sketch pen with me on my travels, but I need a lot more practice to create illustrations that are good enough to include in one of my books.

I wrote and published a poetic memoir, A Turbulent Mind, about my mother’s Alzheimer’s, and each poem features an illustration. I wish I could take credit for those simple pen sketches, but my penmanship isn’t loose or confident enough to create them, so I found a local Turkish illustrator to draw them based on my vision. As an avid nonfiction reader, I love content to be broken up by images or illustrations, and I marvel at how impactful a simple illustration can be.

As an author, I’ve blurred the lines between poetry and memoir, and I’m excited to see Alex blur the lines between a travel guide and memoir. Read on to find out about her writing and self-publishing process.

Author Interview:  Alex Hallatt

How would you describe the type of books/genre you write?

I write and illustrate children’s books, humour books and travel books.

What motivated you to start writing?

I’m a cartoonist and cartooning combines words and pictures. The words come more easily to me than the pictures, and it is fun to go longer form, to be able to escape the confines of a three or four panel comic strip.

Tell us the journey you went on to get your books published (e.g. direct on your website, self-published, assisted-publishing, traditional publisher)

When I was starting out as a professional, full-time cartoonist in 1999, I began working with a publisher in Chichester, UK. Summersdale produce little humour books and to begin with I was well within their budget for illustration. By the time I moved to New Zealand, that wasn’t the case.

I worked with a couple of other publishers, including Hachette and Walter Foster, but it was frustrating to give up so much ownership of my work. The last straw came when I was developing a middle grade book with a publisher in the US. They wanted so many changes, the book stopped looking like mine. When the marketing side of the business decided not to go ahead with the book, it came as a relief.

The experience had taught me a lot about editing and publishing and I began working on my own titles more seriously. The first of my middle grade book series about bullying (FAB Club) was independently published in 2016 and the second came out last year. I’m working on the final one now.

In the middle of working on FAB Club, we moved to the Basque Country in northern Spain for a couple of years. It was an incredible experience. We knew very few English people in the town we were living in and I wanted to tell my fellow countrymen/women what they were missing. A Basque Diary was published in 2017 and is one of my bestsellers online and off.

Basque-Diary-Cover-Alex Hallatt — A Basque Diary by Alex Hallatt

What publishing elements do you most enjoy and most like to avoid, and why? (e.g. design, marketing, formatting etc.)

I love talking to kids about my books, and the process of writing and drawing. Talking to children is very rewarding and inspires in both directions. I used to hate doing ebooks, but Vellum has made them one of the easiest parts of independent publishing. I think I would enjoy marketing my books if I had more time to do it. Perhaps when I finish writing all the titles on my to do list I will invest more time in this!

Basque-Diary-Black-Widow Alex Hallatt Alex Hallatt — Illustration from A Basque Diary

With the hindsight of being a published author, anything you would have done differently?

I wish I had got into marketing my books on Amazon in the UK before they closed the Advantage loophole. I am waiting for them to open up Amazon advertising to us in the UK but I’m not holding my breath.

Basque-Diary-Txotx Alex Hallatt — Illustration from A Basque Diary

What tips or advice would you give an aspiring indie author who is looking to self-publish?

With my FAB Club series, I am writing the books I would’ve liked to have read as an 8 to 12 year old. A Basque Diary was the book I would have liked to have read before I moved to Spain. If you want to read a book that doesn’t exist, it could be a good one for you to write.

Basque-Diary-Hotel-Palacete Alex Hallatt — Illustration from A Basque Diary

What marketing or promotional tools or techniques do you use to reach your readers?

School visits, cartooning workshops, word of mouth and Amazon advertising. I’m also building a relationship with readers via my illustrated newsletter, which is a behind the scenes look at my cartooning life in New Zealand.

Basque-Diary-Escalators Alex Hallatt — Illustration from A Basque Diary

What impact do you want your books to have on your readers?

I would like my FAB Club series to help kids stand up to bullying and I’d like my travel books to help people break the ice when they are in an unfamiliar place.

Alex Hallatt-quail-island-sup — Alex Hallatt paddle boarding Quail Island NZ

What’s your book’s elevator pitch or key selling points?

A Basque Diary is a useful resource for anyone planning on spending time in the Basque Country, detailing what to expect in each month and how to make the most of the geographical, culinary and cultural attractions on offer.

If you liked “Driving Over Lemons”, but would like more illustrations and fewer lemons, this is the book for you.

What’s next on your writing journey?

FAB Club 3 – The Big Match is the third and final book in my middle grade series. It has been edited and I am now sending out illustrated chapters to my advance reading group before publication at the end of the year, or beginning of next. I’m also working on a book about where I live in New Zealand (A New Zealand Diary)

How did cartoonist @alexhtweets blur the lines between #travelmemoir and #travelguide in her illustrated #ABasqueDiary book? Read her author interview to find out. Click To Tweet

Author Bio

Alex Hallatt was born and brought up in the West Country in England. She emigrated to New Zealand, where she met her partner, Duncan. They spent a few years living in Australia, England and Spain and are now back in New Zealand.