Join us and Liz Ledden, one of the founding members of One More Page Podcast, for an illuminating Q & A session on her brilliant new venture with fellow Kids' Lit enthusiasts, Kate Simpson and Nat Amoore.
What is One More Page all about and who
is it for?
One More Page is a fortnightly podcast
for lovers of kids’ books. We like to think it has broad appeal across age
groups – it can be listened to by the whole family. It’s for teachers,
librarians and book industry professionals, children’s writers, parents and
grandparents; essentially anyone who reads, loves, borrows or buys kids’ books.
It’s a segment-based podcast, with book
reviews, an interview with an author, illustrator or someone involved in the
children’s book industry, plus competitions and a kids-led segment called Kids
Capers. Our focus is generally picture books through to middle grade novels.
How did the podcast begin?
One More Page was the brainchild of
Kate Simpson, who asked Nat Amoore and I on board to help create and co-host
the podcast. We’re in a writers’ group together at the NSW Writers’ Centre,
work well together in terms of critiquing each other’s work, and generally just
click. The fact we all have different strengths is what makes us work as a
team. Our personality quirks are so wildly different it’s almost comical at
times. Well, it amuses us anyway!
What kind of work is involved behind
the scenes to bring the podcast to life?
So much! It’s been a huge learning
curve for the three of us since it’s the first time we’ve been involved in
podcasting. There were many months of work involved in the set-up stage, from
establishing a website and creating content, to setting up a host and working
out what equipment we needed.
We also had to figure out everything from the name of the podcast and its format, to things like what music to use, and the look, feel and logo. Fortunately, a wonderful friend of Nat’s came up with our animal characters and does all our banner images and episode logos too (thanks Marianne!).
There’s been gazillions of emails and
texts, laughter and chocolate-fuelled meet-ups and you can still find us
WhatsApp-ing each other from when we wake up till nearly midnight each night.
There really is that much to discuss!
What are the best bits about having
your own podcast?
So far, a highlight has been the access
to amazing writers and industry professionals who have agreed to talk to us!
We’re learning so much from our interviews, as we hope our listeners are.
Getting to read new release books and ARCs is a pretty big perk, but all that
aside, we love that we’re adding to the conversation around children’s books.
We try to promote mostly Australian books and authors, and hope our passion for
kids’ books carries over to listeners getting excited about reading and
stories.
How has it been received so far?
So far, the response has exceeded our
expectations. We’ve had lots of amazing support from a wide range of kids’
books lovers, parents, teachers, writers and writing organisations, such as
SCBWI. There’s even been a primary school that’s incorporated One More Page
into their lesson plans, and is using each episode to create a spin-off
activity for the kids, which was pretty awesome to hear!
What do you hope to achieve with One More
Page and what are your future plans?
We’d like to see the podcast reach more
school groups, and get more kids involved in interacting with their favourite
authors. We’ve had some great feedback on our first episode, where a bunch of
kids got to interview Heidi McKinnon about her picture book, I Just Ate My
Friend, so hopefully we’ll do more of that down the track. Other than that?
More authors. More books. More spreading the kids’ book love!
Where can you find One More Page
online?
You can subscribe to One More Page on
iTunes, SoundCloud or via your favourite podcast app. It’s also available on
our website, www.onemorepagepodcast.com
where you can view each episode’s show notes plus enter competitions on the Win
page. You can follow One More Page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram too – all
are @onemorepageau.
