What do you do? I'm SAHM, but before that I worked in a specialist childrens bookshop.
How long have you been doing it? I worked there for five years, before that had worked in bookshops for four years.
How did you get into it? Straight from school got into a Tafe course and did Professional Writing and Editing. Was full time for two years and it was supposed to cut time of a masters degree at uni. But by the time I finished the course, I was on study burn out mode and wanted to work full time (I was working casually while studying). I got a job with a city bookshop but over time realised that I didn't enjoy the head office politics (plus working until 10pm on Christmas Eve setting up for Boxing Day sales really sucked!), so I moved into the children's specialist store.
Do you enjoy it? I did. I loved being able to hand a child a book, explain what it was about, and have them come back a few days later and tell me they loved it. I enjoyed recommending books to primary schools for their literacy programs and libraries. Most daunting thing I had to do was speak to 100 teachers at a conference. I'm not a good public speaker and the microphone wasn't my friend!
If you could do any job in the world would you still do it? No. I had had enough by the time DD was born. I was doing more of the accounts work than selling by the end. I'd love to work for a publisher in editing, and I'd love to actually finish writing a novel. Plus being a SAHM is fun (mostly!!!!!)

