Family focus sows seeds for inclusive publishing house


Owlet Press founder Samuel Langley-Swain talks about how his new family pushed him towards a career as an author an publisher, and why inclusive books are at the centre of everything Owlet does.


THE story of Owlet Press begins in 2014 when fine art graduate Samuel Langley-Swain and his husband adopted two school-aged siblings. Having built a career as a marketing and brand strategist, Samuel’s new family gave him an instant new perspective on life. It was not just the start of a new family life, but also the beginnings of a new career as an author and publisher – the first seeds for Owlet Press had been sown.


But the process didn’t happen overnight. Instead, Samuel began writing during down time, making notes and growing ideas. The first story to be published was a Christmas tale, Santa’s Wish.


Samuel says: “I remember our first Christmas together as a new family of four, we were all really excited for Father Christmas to arrive. I was staggered to find myself sitting and comforting our son, who had become upset on his recalling memories where Santa had not visited his home with presents at all and somehow blaming himself.


“I wanted to write a book that would ask children and their families to think beyond what they ‘want’ for Christmas and to think more about what they could ‘do’ for Christmas, to help and share with others.”


Autumn-Winter 2020 PEN&INC. 35


Clear focus


That first book sold around 10,000 copies, with money raised from sales helping a number of UK and overseas


charities. That was in 2017, and Samuel carried on working his “day job”, but the vision of becoming a publisher that focussed on


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