Getting a novel published involves a lot of “hard work and trickery”, believes award-winning children’s author David Almond.

Writer of children’s modern classic Skellig, David was comfortable handing out some of the tricks of his trade in a way which was inclusive of both adults and children at this meet the author event, part of the 26 Letters festival.

The hard work involves a routine of daily writing 9 – 5 when not travelling. “It’s a job,” he explains. The trickery involves double-spacing the lines, so you feel as if you’ve filled a lot of the page and working with “page view” on your computer, which counts how many pages you’ve written, so you feel you’re making rapid progress.

Almond’s first attempt at writing a novel for adults took five years and was rejected by every publisher in the UK. Rather than give up, he explained he kept going and wrote his second. One of the tools for “creativity is to be brave enough to feel stupid, be dogged and thick-skinned,” he explains.

Almond’s subsequent success has led to a string of great kid’s novels, such as My Name Is Mina and The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas, and he’s been published in 30 languages around the world.

At his event and book signing, part of the 26 Letters’ celebration of children’s writing, Almond read extracts in his gentle Geordie accent and later signed dozens of books. He answered questions patiently and explained to the would-be writers in the audience – young and old – that it helps for “a writer to have a touch of barminess”.