This month marks seventeen years since I first began helping people bring their stories to life.
Back in 2008, I founded WhiteWater Publishing Ltd with one simple mission: to help people express themselves through writing. For children, that meant giving them the joy of seeing their words printed in real books, showing them that reading and writing were more than school exercises but powerful tools for creativity and confidence. For adults, it was about helping them get the stories out of their heads and onto the page, whether that was for healing, legacy or publication.
Then came the pandemic. The world went quiet, and so many people felt isolated and lost. During those first weeks of lockdown, my dear friends, Lea and Susan, and I decided to do something positive. We created The Book Whisperers as a voluntary service to offer connection, encouragement and support to anyone struggling creatively or emotionally under lockdown.
It was meant to be temporary, but the community that formed was extraordinary. People found comfort in writing, in sharing, and in simply being heard. That spark grew into something far bigger and more meaningful than we ever expected.
In October 2021, WhiteWater Publishing officially became The Book Whisperers CIC, combining my publishing company and the voluntary project into one not-for-profit community interest company. Since then, we have gone from strength to strength.
Today, The Book Whisperers supports writers and authors at every stage of their journey. We help people shape their ideas, write and edit their manuscripts, publish their books, and find their audience. We offer mentoring, coaching, ghostwriting, editing, formatting, cover design, publishing support, marketing advice and guidance at every stage of the writing/publishing journey - but at our core, we are a community.
As a not-for-profit company, every penny of surplus goes straight back into supporting our members. It allows us to create new opportunities, fund resources, host events, and strengthen the peer-to-peer support networks that have become the heart of what we do.
We currently have two thriving membership groups, one for writers and one for authors, providing encouragement, advice and understanding from people who truly get it.
Seventeen years on, I still feel immense gratitude for the work we do and the people I get to do it with. Every book we help into the world feels like a small act of hope and courage. Every story told is proof that creativity connects us, even in the hardest of times.
As we look ahead, we are exploring new ways to connect our authors with readers, both in person and online. We want to celebrate their work, share their voices and continue building bridges between storytellers and audiences. If you have not yet joined us, I warmly invite you to become part of a community that cares, supports and uplifts us all.
Mary Turner Thomson is an international best-selling author, writing coach and publishing consultant. She specialises in helping people tell their stories and is passionate about not victim-shaming, including not victim-shaming ourselves. She is also the author of two true-crime memoirs and a novel about resilience.