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Brands, Books, and Bios. Miss Digital Media interviews The Simple Mum, Blogger, and Award-winning Author Cheryl Lee-White, who shares her experience and tips on creating, publishing, and promoting Brands, Books and Bios.

Cheryl Lee-White is a mother to 3 girls and lives with them and her partner in Somerset, UK. She is an award-winning children’s author and writes a blog for parents called The Simple Mum. She uses her passion for writing and photography to create a business utilising these. 

When and why did you start your business? 
I started my blog up in 2016 which at first was just a hobby. I had a passion for writing and a blog seemed like the best outlet to share my passion. I have 3 daughters and we love to be active and enjoy the great outdoors so I thought I could write a blog about parenting sharing our experience. I named my blog The Simple Mum as my focus is on keeping parenting simple. Blogging was a stepping stone for me to branch out into other areas.

What products and services does The Simple Mum offer? 
Firstly I have my website that offers readers a wealth of free information on all things parenting. I run my blog like a magazine adding posts on different categories every month to ensure there is a wide diversity of content. 

I have written and published 2 children’s rhyming books, ‘Pete The Cheeky Parakeet‘ and the award-winning ‘The Book of Silly Rhymes‘. I offer local author visits where I will go into schools and discuss how to become a writer and read my story to the children.  

I offer freelance writing services where I write content for other businesses and I also sell my photography on stock websites and occasionally sell prints via my social media pages.

What inspires you to write and how do you develop your ideas?
A love for writing is what drives me to keep constantly creating and trying new types of writing. My inspiration definitely comes from my children. Being a mother helps me to create posts for my blog that can help other parents. My children are also what inspired me to start writing children’s books. 

How did you find the process of writing, designing, and publishing your first book? 
Finishing writing a story is just the beginning of the journey and the easy part the publishing is the hard part. Finding a publisher in the first place isn’t easy. You can’t submit stories directly to traditional publishers so you have to use literary agents that can take anything up to 4 months to get back to you. I was lucky that I stumbled across an interview with a new children’s book publisher called Blue Falcon Publishing who was accepting direct submissions. They are in between traditional and self-publishing as I do pay a small fee for their services but they handle all the publishing, editing, blurb write up, cover design, and help with marketing. 

Would you ever self publish a book? 
Yes, I would consider using self-publishing services I did almost use Amazon publishing before I found my publisher. I am however a perfectionist and don’t have the skills to create a good looking book so even if I self-published I would always outsource a professional to edit and design the book for me and of course an illustrator.

What platforms, tools, processes, and techniques do you use to promote your blog and sell your books, products, and services? 
My favourite platform for promoting is Facebook. This generates me the most leads for my blog and books and is also the platform I am most familiar with. Instagram is another favourite platform of mine and is where I sometimes make sales on my photography as it is a very image-based platform. 

Twitter although I don’t get much traffic or interaction from there it is a great place to find opportunities and connect with other bloggers. 

What tips can you share about how you built your personal brand and Bio? 
Be authentic and create a brand that resonates with you. My brand for The Simple Mum is very personal to me even down to my logo which consists of my family and the beach 2 of my favourite things. 

What tips could you share with other aspiring writers, authors, and business mums about blogging and building an audience?
My biggest tip to share with other aspiring writers is to never give up, keep constantly writing, and challenging yourself. The best way to build an audience is to write and share as much of your work as you can. Starting up your own blog is one way to share your work and gradually grow an audience. Also, guest blogging for other websites will help build an audience and get you noticed. I recently wrote a poem for Captain Tom Moore that I shared on my social media, from that it was then shared on a website for lockdown poetry and from there I was contacted to ask if I wanted to be a judge for a poetry competition. Keep writing and sharing as you never know where it will lead you. 

What projects do you have planned for the future? 
During Lockdown I have written a new children’s rhyming story so I am going through the process of getting it published and hopefully it should be ready later this year. I am also looking into setting up a family photography service to add more to the photography side of my business.

You can find The Simple Mum on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thesimplemum/ and check out her blog at http://www.thesimplemum.com/

Miss Digital Media would like to thank Cheryl for sharing her tips and advice on writing, blogging, personal branding, publishing, and promotion.
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