TWO days after prolific local children’s author Carmen Allen launched her latest book, it was on Amazon’s “best-seller” list.
“Molly’s New Treasure” is book number five in a series.
It follows Princess Molly and her friends as they set out on the adventure of a lifetime: a royal treasure hunt across a mysterious island with an initially exciting challenge quickly turning into a race against time.
Carmen has been based in Karuah for 15 years, and has also lived in and around the Port Stephens area.
She has been actively writing since 2018, but her story as an author goes back further than that.
In 2000, before the Internet and e-mails became ubiquitous, Carmen snail-mailed the manuscript for her first story “Molly’s Big Decision” to publishers around the world.
“I heard nothing back and hence locked it away for the next 18 years,” Carmen told News Of The Area.
In 2018, while working at Hamilton TAFE, new connections put her in touch with an editor based in Australia, leading to some long-delayed realisations.
“My first manuscripts were missing the entire editing process, especially structural and developmental editing,” Carmen explained.
“With the ball rolling again, I hired the services of the editor and an illustrator, and then self-published ‘Molly’s Big Decision’ by 2020, with a launch at East Maitland.”
“I put it up online for free download, just to see how much traction it might get… it ended up with 140,000 downloads worldwide.
“ I had to double check the numbers with Google Play (the online distributor), and they told me ‘you should probably write more’!”
From the second book, Carmen employed the talents of her husband Steven, as illustrator.
“I was dabbling in pencil drawings and learnt a lot and improved,” he said.
“It is amazing what you can learn from YouTube and online courses.”
Carmen said, “I pay him in scones, sometimes rock cakes.”
The Molly books are aimed at 7-10 year-olds, but her next series will feature a new character aimed at a slightly older age group (10-12yo).
Details are being kept close to the vest during the all-important character-creation stage.
Neither Carmen nor Steven could have imagined that they would be creating books together when they first met at church in Coffs Harbour decades ago.
Carmen has been working in education and literacy for 27 years; in school administration and libraries since the 1980s; and with church kids’ clubs.
She appreciates the irony that her books are going on library shelves.
Carmen is also working on a memoir about her writer’s journey that should come out sometime next year.
For details, go to carmenLallen.com.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
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