Margaret Rooke on Dyslexia, Confidence and Finding Your Own Path

Hosted by Fiona Scott, today’s podcast welcomes guest Margaret Rooke, an author and writer who has decades of experience in books, magazines, newspapers and writing for charities. Originally, Margaret followed her childhood dreams of becoming a journalist. She went to university and wrote the student newspaper, then local newspapers before moving onto nationals. She built up a career as a writer. Margaret began writing for charities and since then has created a name for herself as an author. Margaret’s books are great for encouraging and inspiring children, teenagers, their schools and families. She has just released a book called ‘Life After School: Dyslexic and Taking on the World!’  Fiona begins by discussing Margaret’s experience as a journalist and they share some mutual understandings of writing to help people in need. Margaret discusses how after losing a job which really broke her heart in her forties, she decided to try her hand at writing her own book. She says her family found out that her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia at just age fourteen. She explains how it was a great shock to them because she seemed to excel at school and then at secondary school she seemed to reach a halt in her learning. Margaret found a poster she had made for ‘anti-bullying’ week, and she noticed that her daughter had spelt the word ‘adult’ wrong. Margaret explains how the answer came to her suddenly that it must be dyslexia. They decided to get her tested and the results confirmed this was the case. She recalls how this destroyed her daughter’s self-esteem and she wanted to make sure that no labels would have a negative impact on her life or stop her daughter from achieving her goals.  This inspired Margaret to research dyslexia, and she felt strongly that this was an opportunity to change the narrative around dyslexia and to inspire others who may have the condition. Fiona asks Margaret how her daughter is now. Margaret says she has got a job she loves now and is thriving. Margaret also shares how this unexpected situation brought about a different opportunity for her and helped give her a purpose. Since then, Maragret has carried on writing and now helps others to write autobiographies. She helps with the writing process and/or mentoring others to write.  Fiona shares with Margaret that a large proportion of her clients also have dyslexia and, in some cases, ADHD too. She asks Margaret what her take is on this and why it could be. Margaret says that many people who have the condition struggle with shame and she’s trying to change the narrative and help others to remove this in-built shame. By titling one of her books, ‘dyslexia is my superpower,’ she interviews ten children about their experience but also gets them to think about and reflect on what their strengths are. Her later book, Life After School: Dyslexic and Taking on the World!’ returns to the same group of children as adults and explores how having dyslexia has impacted their lives. She notes that many of these people have incredible problem-solving skills, better than many others. This could be because they’ve spent much of their lives having to solve problems continually. She also notes that even though in some cases they may have felt things didn’t go as planned, they were able to find another path with a great level of confidence while having an adult on their side.  Margaret notes that much of the issues faced by these adults was actually due to the subliminal messaging they received at school, and this is something she feels passionate about changing in the education system. Margaret talks about the importance in childhood of having at least one influential adult who can inspire a child to be the best they can be, despite having dyslexia. She feels we all have the ability to do this for another person and therefore we should do so. ‘It’s not their fault that school wasn’t right for them, they will still have all sorts of talents and ways they can build a great future for themselves.’ Fiona talks with Margaret about her experience as a journalist also and that for many years she would be extremely aware of grammar and spelling mistakes, but Fiona has had to learn over time that many people do not notice the same things she does and in some cases, this can be because of dyslexia. She notes that we mustn’t judge a person straight away because we don’t know what the reason could be.  Fiona goes on to ask Margaret what her plans are for the end of 2026 heading into 2027. Margaret says one of her main goals is to continue selling her books and pushing sales over the next course of the year. She says one of her books is doing tremendously well but she wants to give more talks, write articles and raise awareness about dyslexia, especially in children. She feels the individuals interviewed for her books have some amazing ideas and thoughts and she wants to continue sharing their words with the world.  She notes how one child she interviewed said ‘If I find a way of cleaning out the oceans or repairing the hole in the O ozone layer, nobody’s going to say to me, I’m not listening to you because you’ve spelt it wrong.’  Margaret notes that we shouldn’t close our minds off to all the amazing attributes our brains can have. Some people’s brains just work in different ways.  Fiona asks Margaret to share some advice to other aspiring writers about how to find an agent. She notes that many people these days don’t know how to find an agent or choose to self-publish their books. Margaret shares that because she’s been around publishing for a while, she had contacts who could help her. She recommends going down the ‘traditional’ route if possible because working with publishers means you can see and share the amount of talent within that organisation. Her publishers have a great sales team, and you know there is someone working for you and your book. She feels the personal touch she receives from her publishers is really important to her. Margaret says she knows self-publishing is getting bigger and bigger but if you do this you have to pay for your own proofreading, editing and design.  Fiona shares how she chose to self-publish both her books but that she did it with ‘eyes wide open.’ Fiona says she does it because of her goals and was able to put the effort in but reminds listeners that if this is something they’re interested in then they must research properly beforehand.  Fiona asks Margaret how she approached her first book. Margaret says for her first book she interviewed all sorts of people including, Darcy Bussell, Richard Branson and a Scottish premier league footballer. She submitted a chunk of the book to a publisher which helped her to approach the following books/stories. The pair discuss the importance of understanding how the money works when comparing self-publishing and ‘traditional’ publishing. However, they both recognise that determination and consistency is key to success.  Fiona goes on to ask Margaret how she found the process of promoting herself. Fiona says before starting her own business, she had always been behind the camera and great at making others look good, but she found it a whole new challenge to promote herself. Margaret says she is part of a society for authors which provide great training courses. She remembers how she went on TV to promote her first book and found it terrifying, but she knows the importance of doing so to spread the word. Margaret shares that her current best seller is ‘Meet the dyslexia club! The Amazing talents, skills and everyday life of children with dyslexia.’  You can contact Margaret via her Instagram and TikTok handle @margsrooke and she is on LinkedIn as Margaret Rooke. You can also find her via her website margaretrooke.com To get in touch with Fiona and the Scott Media team, visit www.scottmedia.uk Join our free Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe