In This Article
Sarah and Emily Authors
Hello – We’re Sarah and Emily, sisters from North Queensland. Sarah is a primary school teacher and teacher librarian who is completely obsessed with books—she’s usually juggling three at once: a paperback, a Kindle read before bed, and an audiobook in the car.
Emily is a busy mum of two young kids—a four-year-old and a two-year-old. When she’s not running around after them, she works as an allied health professional and is also studying. Spare time is a rare luxury, but when she gets a moment, she loves catching up with friends over coffee and reading on her Kindle.
For years, we kept saying, “We should write a book one day!” but life always seemed to get in the way.
Finally, in 2024, we decided to stop talking about it and actually make it happen. It’s been such an exciting journey, and we’re so glad we took the leap into self-publishing!
Our Books
So far, we’ve published three books: Wally Wombat: Anxiety Body Clues, Wally Wombat: Anxiety Strategies, and Book Your Ticket to Adventure.
The Wally Wombat books help little ones understand and manage their big feelings by recognising worry signals in their bodies and learning strategies to calm down. With Emily’s background in allied health and Sarah’s experience in education, we saw a real need for fun, engaging resources to support kids’ emotional well-being—so we created Wally Wombat!
Book Your Ticket to Adventure, inspired by the Children’s Book Week theme, Book an Adventure, is a celebration of reading and how books can take you anywhere—into space, back in time, or even to a magical world! It’s a love letter to fiction, different genres, and the endless possibilities that come with reading.
Our books are available on Amazon and in bookstores and retailers globally, which still feels surreal!
Why We Chose Self-Publishing
We chose to self-publish because we wanted full control over our journey as authors. We believed in our work and were determined to bring our books to life on our own terms.
The idea of handing over creative control to a traditional publisher didn't sit well with us
We wanted to stay true to our vision, learn the process firsthand, and move at a pace that suited our busy lives.
The Advantages of Self-Publishing
- Flexibility ✅
- Creative freedom ✅
- Work together ✅
One of the best things about self-publishing is the flexibility. Since we’re juggling work, kids, and life in general, it’s great to be able to set our own timeline. If things get hectic, we can slow down. When we have more time, we can dive back in and focus on our books. We also love the creative freedom—we get to make the decisions, from the story itself to what we want the illustrations to look like, to formatting, and marketing. Plus, we can stick to our own budget rather than relying on a publisher’s terms.
Another huge advantage is that we’ve been able to do this together. We each have different strengths, and combining them has made the whole process so much easier and more enjoyable. Learning alongside each other has been a rewarding (and sometimes hilarious) experience!
Do you have an idea for a book but not sure where to start?
Watch Laura’s FREE webinars on Getting Started with writing a children’s book & Marketing for Self-published authors! Discounted price on courses, available via Birchy’s Books affiliate links.
The Challenges of self publishing
- Learning EVERYTHING from scratch ❌
Of course, self-publishing isn’t all smooth sailing. We had to learn everything from scratch—where to publish, how to format, and most importantly, how to market our books so people actually find them! It’s been a steep learning curve, but we’ve taken it one step at a time, and the sense of accomplishment has been worth it.
Marketing has been especially tricky because neither of us had much experience in that area. Figuring out how to get our books in front of readers has been a challenge, but we’re slowly getting the hang of it.
Looking Ahead
This first year of self-publishing has been such a fun and rewarding experience. The support we’ve received has been incredible, and we’re excited to see what the next year brings! We have plenty of ideas for new books and series, and some exciting projects are already in the works.
Virtual Author Talks
Sarah has been delivering virtual author talks to schools all around Australia, sharing her love of stories and the creative process.
In each session, she reads Book Your Ticket to Adventure, gives students a behind-the-scenes look at how the Wally Wombat series was made, and answers their thoughtful questions about writing and publishing. These engaging talks are all about sparking imagination, building confidence, and encouraging students—whether they’re budding writers or just discovering the joy of reading.
Our Advice to Aspiring Authors
If you’ve ever thought about writing a book, our advice is simple: go for it!
You never know what you’re capable of until you try.
There’s so much information online that can help you learn the ropes, and if we can figure it out, so can you!
Self-publishing Tips
If you’re looking to self-publish, our best advice is to immerse yourself in learning from a wide range of sources. We started with the Little Ivory Haus course and completed several Australian Writers’ Centre courses to build a strong foundation. From there, we read dozens of articles on the Kindlepreneur website, listened to podcasts like Go Publish Yourself by IngramSpark, and explored countless books and blog posts covering everything from writing and editing to design, publishing, and marketing.
There’s an enormous amount of information out there—learning from a variety of voices helped us understand the process from all angles and gave us the confidence to take the leap into self-publishing.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission.
Sarah and Emily are sisters from North Queensland, Australia and within the past year they have published not one, not two, but THREE children’s picture books! 🤯
To learn about this powerful sister duo, read their article below where they share the pro’s & cons of their self-publishing journey, so far and how you can get your hands on their thoughtfully written picture books.
But first …
Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone by J.K Rowling
Sarah's favourite book from childhood?
Emily's favourite picture books from childhood?
Hairy Mclary by Lynley Dodd
Meet Sarah and Emily
Indie Author Diaries
If you’re interested in sharing your self-publishing story for our Indie Author Diaries blog series, get in touch today!
