How does Anh Do write so many books?
Something I think about often: how does Anh Do write so many books in such a short span of time?
Some context for overseas readers: Anh Do is an Australian artist who started out his media career as a comedian, but has also had another career as a children’s books writer. He also learnt how to paint really well along the way.
He seems to me to be one of those people who just ends up exceptional at whatever he chooses to do. He must work really, really hard but I would also love to know more about his process.
He has started no less than 10 book series since 2013. Since 2020 he’s released almost 50 books! These are not short children’s books either. They are junior novels, taking anywhere between 20 minutes to over an hour to read aloud.
It’s not like the books are garbage either. They are very popular for good reason. My kids love them!
He has to at this point be Australia’s most prolific children’s author. And yet I find so little on the internet written about this. No profiles or interviews. I’m guessing he must choose to be private and not do the publicity thing. Probably too busy writing books!!
This has been post no. 8 for #WeblogPoMo2024 and it is what I was interested in today.
Comments
Cindy
August 6, 2024 at 11:03 AM
In my head he’s locked in the publishing house and not allowed out until he finishes, or, he has ghost writers!
Ozhaggis
October 14, 2024 at 4:54 AM
A well known Australian children’s author doing an event at our local library told the librarian that AD is not well regarded in the industry because it is a badly kept secret that he uses a ghostwriter(s) to write his books.
k
October 30, 2024 at 6:42 AM
knowing him, hes writing all these by the will of stubborness lol
MohawkBookworm
February 24, 2025 at 6:52 AM
It’s great that you wrote this post because he is one of the (probably many) “children’s writers” who do not write or illustrate their stories at all, but their books sell because they are celebrities. Selling books these days is so competitive that publishers are resorting to this model of branding big book series because it guarantees sales, and guarantees a steady flow of output that isn’t limited by the realistic output capabilities of a single human. Right now, this relies on quiet humble ghost writers, but eventually, AI will do that job, and actual writers are going to have trouble making any money at all, let alone selling their own stories. Parents and grandparents buying kids books, especially in BigW or Kmart, where there is no hand selling by competent booksellers, just publishers buying shelf space at eye level, are completely oblivious to the fact that they are actually being given no choice about what their kids buy, they’re just being told what’s good. The fact that this particular example has not been exposed is strange but I think it’s because kid lit folks are both too nice, and also scared of both annoying their potential future publisher, or worse, driving them out of business from the bad publicity. Book loving people want books to survive but it might end up being a snake eating its own tail in the end.
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