Creative Roots Studio founders Rachael Davis-Featherstone and Fiz Osborne on a year of growth
Sustainability and flexibility are at the heart of Creative Roots Studio, which is flourishing as it turns one. Founders Fiz Osborne and Rachael Davis-Featherstone talk to The Bookseller about its growth.
Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025 marks almost exactly a year since Creative Roots Studio launched with the aim of building long-term careers for children’s book creatives. For its founders Rachael Davis-Featherstone and Fiz Osborne, the time has flown. Davis-Featherstone says: “It feels in some ways like it has been two and a half years when we reflect on all the things we have had to do in a very short space of time, but it’s been fun and exciting. The year has just gone from strength to strength.”
The idea for Creative Roots Studio was born soon after Osborne – who is also an author – left her role as publisher at Scholastic to go freelance in September 2023 and Davis-Featherstone approached her about working together. The latter explains: “My background was in investment banking and finance.
When I was 24, I became a writer, but I always saw writing as a business… One of the editors that I badgered to give me writing-to-brief projects was Fiz. She champions writers and helps launch careers. When she went freelance, I reached out to her.” The pair quickly came up with the idea for Creative Roots Studio.
The business has three core pillars: a creative studio for ideas generation with publishers; a literary agency; and a coaching hub, which provides bespoke packages to both creatives and publishers, on subjects ranging from craft to career progression and inclusivity. Davis-Featherstone says: “It became quite a lot of things in one but, at the core, we are both writers from a working-class background who know how hard it is to make a living and want to help creators build a career.” She describes the studio side as “quite a different model to what’s out there, being reactive to what publishers need right now”.
The coaching aims to help creatives who are “not sure how they want to develop their career”, as well as in-house publishing staff who might need mentoring. Similarly, Davis-Featherstone characterises the agenting work as more than just sending publishers submissions, with the pair actively looking for opportunities to help their clients “develop their craft and where they want their career to go so they don’t get pigeonholed”.
Though all the strands have been successful, the agency side has particularly taken off, surprising the pair who thought it would build gradually. Osborne expands: “It was hilarious that last Bologna we were going to have initial conversations, to start putting feelers out and catch up with people, and then I ended up doing a multi-book pre-school deal with Simon & Schuster Children’s on the stand on the first day [for five books in the Hello series written by Osborne and illustrated by Kayt Bochenski, the first two titles of which will be published in spring 2026]. It was very exciting, and it gave us a really good taste of the year ahead.” Davis-Featherstone adds: “We had to get up to speed with learning the back-end of how an agency works instantly, because money was already coming in.”
We support each other with our different skill sets and backgrounds, and they complement each other. That’s why the business works
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The duo represents “a good balance of debuts and established writers”, though they are “very selective with why we’re taking on a client”. Davis-Featherstone explains: “It needs to be the right fit for how our business model works, but there have definitely been a lot more deals than we projected for the first nine months.” The studio and agency strands are “very much interlinked”. “Every time we’re in a publishing meeting, we’ve got on both hats and are considering whether our clients have got a submission that works. They’re all working in very different spaces, and they’ve all got different career goals. That allows us to go into every meeting knowing who to champion.”
Though Osborne did some agenting the first time she went freelance almost a decade ago, Davis-Featherstone has found this “the steepest learning curve”, but has been able to tap into support from the wider industry and training from the Association of Authors’ Agents, as well as her business partner’s insight. “We certainly support each other with our different skill sets and backgrounds, and they complement each other. I think that’s why the business works. If we both had the same experience, there’d have been too many knowledge gaps.” Osborne agrees: “We bring quite interesting viewpoints to each part of the business, both being authors, me having an in-house background and Rachael having worked with so many different publishers. You can cherry pick what you want from every area and try to make it as effective and as enjoyable as possible.”
She continues: “One of the interesting things about publishing right now is that we have to be adaptable. We have to work in different ways, and people are realising that and are open to that.” She continues: “That has been a positive change for businesses like ours that can respond to the different things that each publisher needs and the ways that the market shifts. We are always coming back to ‘are we making this easier for publishers?’, because that is one of the goals, and they know that there’s value in that too.” Her co-founder concurs: “That is why we have three pillar structure, because publishing does go through waves and the most important thing for us is flexibility. That is probably our strength.”
For Osborne, the working relationship between the partners has been “one of the most satisfying things” about Creative Roots. “We rely on each other, and we trust each other,” says Davis-Featherstone. “That’s the reason we’ve been able to grow so quickly and achieve so much, because we’ve learned how each other works best… And it just feels like a joy. A lot of the time, it doesn’t feel like work. We don’t take that for granted.”
The pair are looking forward to returning to Bologna. Osborne says: “Bologna feels quite unique to me. I think publishers go there with a specific mindset. They are open to things, and they are excited to find special submissions, and that is a really galvanising environment to be in. There’s just something different about chats with publishers in Bologna that seems to make them more fruitful somehow. I don’t know why – maybe it’s the Prosecco, maybe it’s the ice cream.”
Davis-Featherstone, who will also meet up with the international publishers for her upcoming YA dark academia thriller Oxford Blood (to be published by Walker in September) there, adds: “Bologna is this fantastic opportunity to get extra insights that will kickstart us for the rest of the year. It gives you a broad strategic sense of where the market is at. Our studio is very reactive. This is one of those moments that is really key for us.” She reflects: “We’d just launched literally the week before we went to Bologna last time. This time, we’re going there with a business that has done well for a year, we’ve got a table in the agents’ section and a full list. It just shows how much we’ve grown already.”
Looking to the future, Osborne believes that further growth will come from “building on our successes”. Davis-Featherstone agrees: “We’ve had a great start, but it’s a start. We’ve got the first deals for our clients, but we need to consolidate that. The market’s adapting to lots of things at the moment, so it’s just about making sure we’re staying agile and navigating that.” She adds: “We do take our responsibility to the other creatives so seriously, so we’re making sure we’re growing in a responsible way. Ultimately, Creative Roots at its core is all about sustainability.”
Creative Roots projects pitching at Bologna
Picture Books
In the Dark
Sue Meikle
A satisfyingly spooky story with a dry sense of humour and a surprise ending! Age: 3+.
There’s a Party in This Book!
Emily Ann Davison
Join the characters on their journey to the centre of the book, but beware of the surprise. An interactive picture book with series potential. Age: 3+
Mouse’s Mail Fail
Fiz Osborne
Mouse embarks on an epic adventure to deliver a letter to his best friend. A daring story of ambition. Age: 3+
Non-Fiction: Picture Books
Nature Knows
Alice Hemming, Kayt Bochenski
Nature knows how to rest and survive… there’s a lot we can learn from nature ourselves. Age: 5+
We Walked with Dinosaurs
Simon Yeend
Meet the creatures that walked with dinosaurs and are still around today. Age: 5+.
The Flick of a Fin
Tracy Bullock
A true story of a salmon’s perseverance, with series potential. Age: 3+
Illustrated: Non-Fiction
Partition
Sarah Shaffi
A child-friendly look at a hugely important historical event in both British and Asian history, written ahead of the 80th anniversary of Indian Partition in 2027. Age: 7+.
Dear Chocolate Chooser
Tracy Bullock
You Choose meets sustainability, written in a quirky series of letters. Age: 9+
