Fiz Osborne and Rachael Davis-Featherstone launch Creative Roots Studio for children's publishing

Authors Fiz Osborne and Rachael Davis-Featherstone are launching Creative Roots Studio to “help build sustainable, long-term careers for children’s book creatives”.

They described the organisation as featuring “an innovative business model with three core pillars”. There will be the creative studio for idea generation with publishers, the agency, which takes “a proactive, organic approach” to submissions created by its author and illustrator clients, and the coaching hub, which provides bespoke packages to both independent creatives and publishers, on subjects ranging from craft to career progression and inclusivity.

Davis-Featherstone is the author of over 20 children’s books, including Waterstones Prize-shortlisted I am Not a Prince (Hachette Children’s) and Walker/Storymix collaboration Oxford Slays. Formerly a financial consultant, Davis-Featherstone has a background in finance, strategy, learning and development, and EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) alongside her experience working with over a dozen publishing houses. 

She said: “As an industry we love a good debut, but the path for creatives to build a financially viable long-term career is muddier. Growing up as a working class mixed-race Black British child, I didn’t think a career as an author was possible for me. Fiz was one of the first publishers to help me break into the children’s book market and I am beyond excited to be launching Creative Roots Studio with her.

“With our complimentary skill sets and experiences in publishing, learning and development, and diversity we want to help many creatives develop successful long-term careers and produce lots of bestsellers.” 

Meanwhile Osborne was previously publisher at Scholastic before going freelance in 2023. She has almost two decades of publishing experience and is also an award-winning children’s author. After generating 12 book deals for herself and her clients in the first few months after going freelance, Osborne described the important "potential for growth and the value of paying forward that opportunity to other creatives". 

She added: “Creative Roots Studio is fuelled by two super-creative, hardworking and experienced children’s book creatives, spanning fiction, non-fiction and picture books. Rachael and I know how to support our clients, give them the tools they need to understand the industry and the market, and create opportunities that will help give them career longevity. We are so excited to throw ourselves into the year ahead.”

For more information, visit creativerootsstudio.com.