I've been a fan of adult colouring books for years now, and have used them as a precursor to writing since before they were trendy :) So I'm excited to announce that I've now published An English Country House and Garden adult colouring book, and accompanying notebook, with my Dad, Arthur J Penn, who is a fine artist and print maker. A real Creative Penn collaboration!

This interview with Meg Cowley gave me everything I needed to know to publish these very different kinds of books, so I'm thrilled to be sharing it with you today.

In the intro I mention the final reminder for my webinar with Joseph Michael, the Scrivener Coach, this week on How to use Scrivener to Write, Organize and Export your Book into Multiple Formats. Thurs 3 March at 3pm US Eastern, 8pm UK and yes, you can get the recording if you sign up. Click here for more info.

The corporate sponsorship for this show pays for hosting and transcription. This podcast episode is sponsored by 99 Designs, where you can get all kinds of designs for your author business including book covers, merchandising, branding and business cards, illustrations and artwork and much more. You can get a Powerpack upgrade which gives your project more chance of getting noticed by going to: 99Designs.com/joanna

Meg Cowley is an author and illustrator. She writes the fantasy series, Books of Caledan, and also writes and illustrates the children's book series, Diary of a Secret Witch. She also produces Adult Colouring Books, which we're talking about today.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

On the reason for Meg's shift into coloring books.

The difference between sales in fiction and sales in coloring books.

Tips about what makes the best kind illustration for an adult coloring book.

Information about the important rights illustrators need to retain in order to publish their coloring books.

The Wacom Intuos 4 digital tablet Meg uses to create her illustrations, and specific details about the images she uses.

On cover design, and thoughts on colour vs. black and white, and book size and layout.

Using keywords for best ranking in Amazon and the cross-genre appeal of coloring books.

The paper choices available and what works best for coloring books.

Creating other products from illustrations.

Marketing and advertising coloring books, and the pros and cons of selling in person at craft fairs.

You can find Meg at www.MegCowley.com and on twitter @meg_cowley

Transcription of interview with Meg Cowley
Joanna: Hi, everyone, I'm Joanna Penn from the Creative Penn, and today I'm here with Meg Cowley. Hi, Meg!

Meg: Hello!

Joanna: It's great to have you on the show. Just a little introduction, Meg is an author and illustrator. She writes the fantasy series, Books of Caledan, and also writes and illustrates the children's book series, Diary of a Secret Witch. Now, Meg has a range of adult coloring books, which is what we're talking about today, which is super exciting. Meg, just start by telling us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and illustration.

Meg: I suppose, like most people, I've done it since forever. As soon as I could pick up a pencil, I was drawing. As soon as I could write, I was writing stories. They were quite bad, all the illustrations and all the stories, but when you keep at something, you eventually get better.

The first book I wrote was the first Book of Caledan. That just sort of popped into my head and I just started to write it down. Like many first novels, it's a very long and convoluted process, and so you learn what you're doing and then it gets a bit easier and faster from there on.

It really helps discovering you, to be honest. I was trying to think this morning, and probably just over three years ago I found you and that's where the penny dropped ...