Children’s Book Author & Story Lead

A child will read their book forty times, or never again. There is no middle. And unlike an app, we cannot fix it afterwards. It is printed, it is bound, it is on the shelf, and it is the only copy.

The bar is a book you would be happy to find in a bookshop. An opening that makes a child listen, a character they care about, a small problem that matters to them, language they enjoy hearing, and an ending that earns another reading. Rhythm, purposeful repetition, humour, suspense and the page turn are part of the writing. You need to know where a child’s attention will wander and how to bring it back.

The words have to land at the right level for a two year old and for a seven year old, and both have to be real books rather than one book with the long words taken out. Pictures need to carry the story with the words, and the characters need to stay recognisable. Your authorship and editorial judgement set the direction, with illustration expertise supporting it.

The child’s own idea has to survive all of it. If a five year old asks for a story about a dinosaur who is scared of the bath, they should get exactly that, not a smoothed-out version of it. The thing they recognise as theirs is the whole product.

And you cannot do it a book at a time. Thousands of these will be made every week, in homes we will never see, and you will read almost none of them. Your taste has to be built into the system rather than applied at the end. That is the real work, and it is why this is a founder’s job rather than an editor’s.

There is a floor underneath all of it. Nothing frightening, nothing that lands badly, nothing that pretends to be a child’s friend. Talebrix is not a companion and never will be. Making that guarantee true, in every book, is part of the role.

The machine that writes and illustrates works today. It produces books. Some are lovely and some are not, and right now nobody owns the difference between those two.

That is what we are hiring. You would take a system that can produce anything and give it judgement.

The three below run in order and the last one does not end. Taste applied once is a set of notes on a few books; taste built in is what every book after it comes out of. That is the argument for taking this as a career rather than a contract to make a handful of good ones.

Building the machine, the hardware, the factory, the model plumbing. You are not expected to be technical. You are expected to be right about books, and to be able to explain why, in a way an engineer can act on.

You specialise in writing children’s books, particularly picture books and stories for younger children. You can show books or stories you have authored, explain your contribution, and defend the choices that keep a young reader engaged. You understand read-aloud rhythm, age-appropriate language, pacing, humour and emotional stakes.

You must be a parent, with first-hand experience of reading with your own child. You know the difference between a book they sit through and one they bring back to you, and can explain what the writing does to earn that attention.

Children’s book authorship is the core qualification. A graphics, motion design, animation or general illustration portfolio alone does not demonstrate the writing experience this role requires. Show us the stories and the craft behind them.

If you have also judged stories produced by a system and decided which were ready for readers, tell us. That experience helps you turn your writing judgement into practical guidance for the people building Talebrix.

Salary, equity and appointment terms to be agreed, subject to funding. Any equity, vesting, IP assignment and appointment terms will be agreed individually before work starts. Paid work depends on funding; no start date is promised.

None of this has happened yet. The prices are intent and so are the specifications. That is the offer: a product where the quality of the writing and the pictures is not a feature, it is the entire reason anyone buys it, and nobody owns that yet.

Email hello@talebrix.com and name this role. Send examples of children’s books or stories you have written, explain your contribution, and describe one specific storytelling choice you made to hold a young child’s attention.

Send us a picture book you think is close to perfect, and tell us what the person who made it got right that almost nobody else does.

Read The Spider Who Was Very Polite and explain one specific weakness, why it matters to a young reader, and how you would improve it. Please also tell us whether you have the right to work in the UK.