About Gary Smailes

Some say Gary’s writing success comes from the fact that he has the imagination of a 12-year old boy. Gary would like to disagree, but secretly thinks that this is actually a compliment.

Gary Smailes decided to follow his dream of writing for children, after rather foolishly packing in his job as a Senior Research And Development Technologist at a major pharmaceutical company in 2000. Gary always felt that not actually knowing what his title meant was probably a sign he was not the correct man for the job.

Our hero’s plan was to ‘write books’,’ and he began his quest by going back to school. Whilst doing odd jobs (and some of them were odd) Gary spent two years studying for an MA in Military History. It was during this time that Gary got his first break – meeting Horrible Histories writer Terry Deary.

It turned out that Terry Deary was looking for a researcher to help him write the Horrible Histories series, and Gary was delighted to jump in and get involved. Over the coming years, Terry acted like a mentor for Gary, teaching him the secrets behind being an effective children’s writer, the best way to work with publishers and how to actually make money out of the whole process.

Gary Smailes’ first ‘break’ came in 2006, when he was commissioned to write the Brave Scot series. This set of two books was Gary’s baptism of fire (apparently writing that William Wallace was a serial killer is not the best option for a book destined for the Scottish market.) Next up was the Modern Heroes series of eight books. These looked at heroes from across the globe and gave Gary the chance to fine tune his writing skills, whilst also teaching him valuable lessons regarding publishers and the publishing industry.

In 2009 Gary secured the services of agent Andrew Lownie, who was able to do a deal with Franklin Watts for a series called BattleBooks. Andrew was also able to secure a second series, called Famous Scots, with Scottish publisher Birlinn.

Gary is not just a children’s writer, but also the co-founder of literary consultancy BubbleCow, which helps writers get published.

It is on record that Gary is a supporter of Tranmere Rovers, likes licorice comforts and has a lifelong dream of writing a book about wind-up toys (if you are a publisher reading this and wish to see his book proposal for this, frankly, earth-shattering idea, he would be more than willing to let you have a quick gander.)