“As a family, we try to collect as many books featuring Black protagonists and characters as we can, and yet our collection is nowhere near as big as we’d like,” says Ebony Lyon. So she founded a publishing company with her husband…
Ebony and Curtis run Formy Books, publishing racially and culturally-diverse children’s books
Where do you live and with whom?
In Luton with my partner and three children (aged nine, four and three) – but I’m originally from Nottingham.
What’s your home like?
A three-bed semi detached house with a garden (albeit a messy one, a gardener I am not!) we’ve been here for nearly four years. We moved out here from West London where we had a two-bed flat, so I am forever grateful for the extra space both indoor and outdoor. It’s the first place I’ve lived with a downstairs bathroom… it was really strange at first but we’re completely used to it now. It’s VERY cold in winter but really handy for toilet training and guests.
What time are you up in the morning?
I’m an early bird! I’m usually awake from around 5:30am.
What wakes you up?
My body clock always wakes me up. I’m always awake before my alarm; the snooze button is not something I’m familiar with!
How do you feel?
Mostly I’m wide awake in the mornings, so usually get straight out of bed. I’m usually quite talkative too!
What do you do first thing?
Pop the kettle on and open my laptop. I’m most productive in the mornings and find that I can usually get a considerable amount of work completed before anyone else in the house is awake. I can also drink a tea that’s hot, and get showered without little hands knocking on the bathroom door.
Formy Books grew organically through a desire to both impress our children with good quality representation and to give Black people from different backgrounds and experiences a chance to tell their own truths, through children’s books.
In three words, describe mornings in your home?
Productive, busy, energetic!
Tea or coffee?
Tea.
How might the rest of your day pan out?
After the school/nursery drop off, Curtis (my partner) and I head home and will usually have some breakfast together and talk. We then get on with our work for the next few hours, and will eat lunch together around 1pm. After that more work – I try to finish my work day by 2:30pm – and then we head back out for the school/nursery pick up. Once we are all back home we all spend time together until dinner time, factoring in homework time for our eldest. Curtis and I alternate cooking days with bath and book and bedtime for the children which means one person isn’t run off their feet until the evening! We find this works really well for us as a family, especially now we are both working from home, as does following a schedule quite rigorously.
What’s your workspace like?
Wherever our laptops are! The dining table, sofa, bed – anywhere. We don’t have an office as there’s no spare room in our house, but we’ve made it work so far.
Tell us about your business: when did you launch, and how/why did it come about?
We launched Formy Books, an independent publisher focused on own voices children’s picture books featuring black characters and cultures earlier this year.
As a family, we try to collect as many books featuring Black protagonists and characters as we can, and yet our collection is nowhere near as big as we’d like. We know that it’s vitally important that our children grow up seeing themselves reflected back from the books they love; an absence of an inclusive range of characters, and creative role models, in children’s literature can have a hugely detrimental effect on them. Sadly we realised, whilst searching for these books, that aside from there not being very many, what we could find was also not created by the people depicted within them. Curtis wrote our first title, Later, which is a tender look at Afro-Caribbean family life, as a surprise gift to us as he had struggled to find children’s books that depicted our family life – a family of Afro-Caribbean heritage, with a stay-at-home dad and a mum who goes to work.
I have stopped trying to strive for perfection as it doesn’t exist and only ends up with feelings of failure
Formy Books grew organically through a desire to both impress our children with good quality representation and to give Black people from different backgrounds and experiences a chance to tell their own truths, through children’s books.
Where are the kids when you’re working?
They’re back at school and nursery now, however during lockdown and half term holidays we switch between being with the children and working, in separate areas of the house – usually in two/three hour increments. We are also very lucky that Curtis’ parents live five minutes aways from us, so when rules allow, we also have a lot of help from Nana and Grandad.
What’s the greatest challenge when running your own business?
Fitting everything in! With three children and a full-time job it is very difficult, however I absolutely love it. When growing a business from the ground up, everything has to be cultivated from scratch, from relationships to sales, and that takes real work.
What makes it all worthwhile?
Seeing Formy Books grow, and the community support we’ve received makes it all worthwhile. At the core of our business, we believe all children deserve to see themselves reflected back in the books they love and we want to deliver more children’s books by Black creators, giving children access to positive representation in both their books and the industry.
Are there aspects of the production that you delegate to others?
I look after the commercial and marketing side of the business, Curtis is responsible for all creative and editorial areas. It’s just the two of us running the business side so there’s no one else to delegate to for now.
Three tips for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Persevere, plan and believe in yourself.
Are you a happy lone worker, or do you enjoy the buzz of a shared workspace?
My happy place would be a balance of the two. I’m happy to work alone, however I do need to balance that out with social interactions once in a while.
What’s the secret to career success?
Love what you do and challenge yourself.
Is the juggle real for you… do you find it difficult balancing kids/relationship/me-time/time for friends/career?
I find it all difficult to balance. In my opinion there’s no perfect balance and we are all just doing our best to be the best – mum, partner, employee etc.… I have stopped trying to strive for perfection as it doesn’t exist and only ends up with feelings of failure. One thing I try to work harder on is finding time for myself. “You cannot pour from an empty cup”. It’s definitely easier said than done, but I do try!
Describe an ideal weekend?
A lazy one. Relaxing is again, something I have to work on, but if we manage to have a really chilled weekend, where the kids have fun and we are all happy and content – that’s ideal. There will also be Prosecco and good food for the evenings!
If you could wake up anywhere tomorrow, where would it be?
Jamaica. I am yearning to return.
Support Ebony’s crowd-funder here.
And visit their website.